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(of 12), by Edmund Burke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) + +Author: Edmund Burke + +Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15198] +[Date last updated: May 5, 2006] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF BURKE, VOL. 2 *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team from images generously made available by the +Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i" /></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>THE WORKS +<br /><br /> +<span style="font-size: 71%">OF</span> +<br /><br /> +THE RIGHT HONOURABLE<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 200%">EDMUND BURKE</span></h2> + +<h3>IN TWELVE VOLUMES<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: smaller">VOLUME THE SECOND</span></h3> +<p /> +<div style="text-align: center"> +<img src="images/001.png" alt="BURKE COAT OF ARMS." title="BURKE COAT OF ARMS" /> +</div> +<p /> +<p style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0"><b>London</b><br /> +<br /> +JOHN C. NIMMO<br /> +<br /> +14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.<br /> +<br /> + +MDCCCLXXXVII<br /></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_II" id="CONTENTS_OF_VOL_II" />CONTENTS OF VOL. II.</h2> +<p><a name="Page_i" id="Page_ii" /><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii" /></p> + + +<p><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" title="1" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p /> <!-- bizarrely, without this line, IE5 doesn't show the TOC at all!! (just a big blank) --> +<ul class="TOC"> + +<li><a href="#AMERICAN_TAXATION">SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION, April 19, 1774</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></span></li> +<li> +<ul class="TOCSub"> +<li><a href="#PREFACE1">PREFACE</a></li> +<li><a href="#SPEECH1">SPEECH</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><a href="#SPEECHES">SPEECHES ON ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL AND AT THE CONCLUSION +OF THE POLL, October 13 and November 3, 1774</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></span></li> +<li> +<ul class="TOCSub"> +<li><a href="#ADVERTISEMENT">EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.</a></li> +<li><a href="#ARRIVAL_AT_BRISTOL">SPEECH AT HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL.</a></li> +<li><a href="#ELECTORS_OF_BRISTOL">SPEECH TO THE ELECTORS OF BRISTOL, ON HIS BEING DECLARED BY THE SHERIFFS DULY ELECTED +ONE OF THE REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT FOR THAT CITY, ON THURSDAY, THE 3D OF NOVEMBER, 1774.</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li><a href="#CONCILIATION_WITH_THE_COLONIES">SPEECH ON MOVING RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH +AMERICA, March 22, 1775</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></span></li> + +<li><a href="#SHERIFFS_OF_THE_CITY_OF_BRISTOL">LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL, ON THE AFFAIRS +OF AMERICA, April 3, 1777</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></span></li> + +<li><a href="#TWO_LETTERS">TWO LETTERS TO GENTLEMEN OF BRISTOL, ON THE BILLS +DEPENDING IN PARLIAMENT RELATIVE TO THE TRADE +OF IRELAND, April 23 and May 2, 1778</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></span></li> +<li> +<ul class="TOCSub"> +<li><a href="#LETTER1">TO SAMUEL SPAN, ESQ., MASTER OF THE SOCIETY OF MERCHANTS ADVENTURERS OF +BRISTOL.</a></li> +<li><a href="#LETTER2">COPY OF A LETTER TO MESSRS. ———— AND CO., BRISTOL.</a></li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li><a href="#INDEPENDENCE_OF_PARLIAMENT">SPEECH ON PRESENTING TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS A +PLAN FOR THE BETTER SECURITY OF THE INDEPENDENCE +OF PARLIAMENT, AND THE ECONOMICAL REFORMATION +OF THE CIVIL AND OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS, +February 11, 1780</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></span></li> + +<li><a href="#GUILDHALL_IN_BRISTOL">SPEECH AT BRISTOL PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION, September +6, 1780</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_365">365</a></span></li> + +<li><a href="#DECLINING_THE_POLL">SPEECH AT BRISTOL ON DECLINING THE POLL, September +9, 1780</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_425">425</a></span></li> + +<li><a href="#EAST_INDIA_BILL">SPEECH ON MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL, December 1, 1783</a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_431">431</a></span></li> + +<li><a href="#REPRESENTATION_TO_HIS_MAJESTY">A REPRESENTATION TO HIS MAJESTY, MOVED IN THE +HOUSE OF COMMONS, June 14, 1784 </a> <span class="tocright"><a href="#Page_537">537</a></span></li> +<li> +<ul class="TOCSub"> +<li><a href="#PREFACE2">PREFACE</a></li> +<li><a href="#MOTION">MOTION</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><a name="AMERICAN_TAXATION" id="AMERICAN_TAXATION" /></p> +<h2>SPEECH<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br /> +<br /> +AMERICAN TAXATION.<br /> +<br /> + +<span style="font-size: 60%">APRIL 19, 1774.</span></h2> +<p><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" title="2" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" title="3" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE1" id="PREFACE1" />PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>The following speech has been much the subject of conversation, and the +desire of having it printed was last summer very general. The means of +gratifying the public curiosity were obligingly furnished from the notes +of some gentlemen, members of the last Parliament.</p> + +<p>This piece has been for some months ready for the press. But a delicacy, +possibly over-scrupulous, has delayed the publication to this time. The +friends of administration have been used to attribute a great deal of +the opposition to their measures in America to the writings published in +England. The editor of this speech kept it back, until all the measures +of government have had their full operation, and can be no longer +affected, if ever they could have been affected, by any publication.</p> + +<p>Most readers will recollect the uncommon pains taken at the beginning of +the last session of the last Parliament, and indeed during the whole +course of it, to asperse the characters and decry the measures of those +who were supposed to be friends to America, in order to weaken the +effect of their opposition to the acts of rigor then preparing against +the colonies. The speech contains a full refutation of the charges +against that party with which Mr. Burke has all along acted. In doing +this, he has taken a review of <a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" title="4" class="pagenum"></a>the effects of all the schemes which +have been successively adopted in the government of the plantations. The +subject is interesting; the matters of information various and +important; and the publication at this time, the editor hopes, will not +be thought unseasonable.<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" title="5" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SPEECH1" id="SPEECH1" />SPEECH.</h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>During the last session of the last Parliament, on the 19th of + April, 1774, Mr. Rose Fuller, member for Rye, made the following + motion:—</p> + +<p> "That an act made in the seventh year of the reign of his present + Majesty, intituled, 'An act for granting certain duties in the + British colonies and plantations in America; for allowing a + drawback of the duties of customs upon the exportation from this + kingdom of coffee and cocoa-nuts, of the produce of the said + colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on + china earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually + preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies + and plantations, might be read."</p> + +<p> And the same being read accordingly, he moved,—</p> + +<p> "That this House will, upon this day sevennight, resolve itself + into a committee of the whole House, to take into consideration the + duty of three-pence per pound weight upon tea, payable in all his + Majesty's dominions in America, imposed by the said act; and also + the appropriation of the said duty."</p> + +<p> On this latter motion a warm and interesting debate arose, in which + Mr. Burke spoke as follows.</p></div> + +<p>Sir,—I agree with the honorable gentleman<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" /><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor" +title="Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Esq., lately appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury.">[1]</a> who spoke last, that this +subject is not new in this House. Very disagreeably to this House, very +un<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" title="6" class="pagenum"></a>fortunately to this nation, and to the peace and prosperity of this +whole empire, no topic has been more familiar to us. For nine long +years, session after session, we have been lashed round and round this +miserable circle of occasional arguments and temporary expedients. I am +sure our heads must turn and our stomachs nauseate with them. We have +had them in every shape; we have looked at them in every point of view. +Invention is exhausted; reason is fatigued; experience has given +judgment; but obstinacy is not yet conquered.</p> + +<p>The honorable gentleman has made one endeavor more to diversify the form +of this disgusting argument. He has thrown out a speech composed almost +entirely of challenges. Challenges are serious things; and as he is a +man of prudence as well as resolution, I dare say he has very well +weighed those challenges before he delivered them. I had long the +happiness to sit at the same side of the House, and to agree with the +honorable gentleman on all the American questions. My sentiments, I am +sure, are well known to him; and I thought I had been perfectly +acquainted with his. Though I find myself mistaken, he will still permit +me to use the privilege of an old friendship; he will permit me to apply +myself to the House under the sanction of his authority, and, on the +various grounds he has measured out, to submit to you the poor opinions +which I have formed upon a matter of importance enough to demand the +fullest consideration I could bestow upon it.</p> + +<p>He has stated to the House two grounds of deliberation: one narrow and +simple, and merely confined to the question on your paper; the other +more large <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" title="7" class="pagenum"></a>and more complicated,—comprehending the whole series of the +Parliamentary proceedings with regard to America, their causes, and +their consequences. With regard to the latter ground, he states it as +useless, and thinks it may be even dangerous, to enter into so extensive +a field of inquiry. Yet, to my surprise, he had hardly laid down this +restrictive proposition, to which his authority would have given so much +weight, when directly, and with the same authority, he condemns it, and +declares it absolutely necessary to enter into the most ample historical +detail. His zeal has thrown him a little out of his usual accuracy. In +this perplexity, what shall we do, Sir, who are willing to submit to the +law he gives us? He has reprobated in one part of his speech the rule he +had laid down for debate in the other, and, after narrowing the ground +for all those who are to speak after him, he takes an excursion, +himself, as unbounded as the subject and the extent of his great +abilities.</p> + +<p>Sir, when I cannot obey all his laws, I will do the best I can. I will +endeavor to obey such of them as have the sanction of his example, and +to stick to that rule which, though not consistent with the other, is +the most rational. He was certainly in the right, when he took the +matter largely. I cannot prevail on myself to agree with him in his +censure of his own conduct. It is not, he will give me leave to say, +either useless or dangerous. He asserts, that retrospect is not wise; +and the proper, the only proper subject of inquiry, is "not how we got +into this difficulty, but how we are to get out of it." In other words, +we are, according to him, to consult our invention, and to reject our +experience. The mode of deliberation he recommends is diametrically +opposite to <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" title="8" class="pagenum"></a>every rule of reason and every principle of good sense +established amongst mankind. For that sense and that reason I have +always understood absolutely to prescribe, whenever we are involved in +difficulties from the measures we have pursued, that we should take a +strict review of those measures, in order to correct our errors, if they +should be corrigible,—or at least to avoid a dull uniformity in +mischief, and the unpitied calamity of being repeatedly caught in the +same snare.</p> + +<p>Sir, I will freely follow the honorable gentleman in his historical +discussion, without the least management for men or measures, further +than as they shall seem to me to deserve it. But before I go into that +large consideration, because I would omit nothing that can give the +House satisfaction, I wish to tread the narrow ground to which alone the +honorable gentleman, in one part of his speech, has so strictly confined +us.</p> + +<p>He desires to know, whether, if we were to repeal this tax, agreeably to +the proposition of the honorable gentleman who made the motion, the +Americans would not take post on this concession, in order to make a new +attack on the next body of taxes; and whether they would not call for a +repeal of the duty on wine as loudly as they do now for the repeal of +the duty on tea. Sir, I can give no security on this subject. But I will +do all that I can, and all that can be fairly demanded. To the +<i>experience</i> which the honorable gentleman reprobates in one instant and +reverts to in the next, to that experience, without the least wavering +or hesitation on my part, I steadily appeal: and would to God there was +no other arbiter to decide on the vote with which the House is to +conclude this day!<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" title="9" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>When Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in the year 1766, I affirm, +first, that the Americans did <i>not</i> in consequence of this measure call +upon you to give up the former Parliamentary revenue which subsisted in +that country, or even any one of the articles which compose it. I affirm +also, that, when, departing from the maxims of that repeal, you revived +the scheme of taxation, and thereby filled the minds of the colonists +with new jealousy and all sorts of apprehensions, then it was that they +quarrelled with the old taxes as well as the new; then it was, and not +till then, that they questioned all the parts of your legislative power, +and by the battery of such questions have shaken the solid structure of +this empire to its deepest foundations.</p> + +<p>Of those two propositions I shall, before I have done, give such +convincing, such damning proof, that, however the contrary may be +whispered in circles or bawled in newspapers, they never more will dare +to raise their voices in this House. I speak with great confidence. I +have reason for it. The ministers are with me. <i>They</i> at least are +convinced that the repeal of the Stamp Act had not, and that no repeal +can have, the consequences which the honorable gentleman who defends +their measures is so much alarmed at. To their conduct I refer him for a +conclusive answer to his objection. I carry my proof irresistibly into +the very body of both Ministry and Parliament: not on any general +reasoning growing out of collateral matter, but on the conduct of the +honorable gentleman's ministerial friends on the new revenue itself.</p> + +<p>The act of 1767, which grants this tea-duty, sets forth in its preamble, +that it was expedient to raise a <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" title="10" class="pagenum"></a>revenue in America for the support of +the civil government there, as well as for purposes still more +extensive. To this support the act assigns six branches of duties. About +two years after this act passed, the ministry, I mean the present +ministry, thought it expedient to repeal five of the duties, and to +leave (for reasons best known to themselves) only the sixth standing. +Suppose any person, at the time of that repeal, had thus addressed the +minister:<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2" /><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor" title="Lord North, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.">[2]</a> "Condemning, as you do, the repeal of the Stamp Act, why do +you venture to repeal the duties upon glass, paper, and painters' +colors? Let your pretence for the repeal be what it will, are you not +thoroughly convinced that your concessions will produce, not +satisfaction, but insolence in the Americans, and that the giving up +these taxes will necessitate the giving up of all the rest?" This +objection was as palpable then as it is now; and it was as good for +preserving the five duties as for retaining the sixth. Besides, the +minister will recollect that the repeal of the Stamp Act had but just +preceded his repeal; and the ill policy of that measure, (had it been so +impolitic as it has been represented,) and the mischiefs it produced, +were quite recent. Upon the principles, therefore, of the honorable +gentleman, upon the principles of the minister himself, the minister has +nothing at all to answer. He stands condemned by himself, and by all his +associates old and new, as a destroyer, in the first trust of finance, +of the revenues,—and in the first rank of honor, as a betrayer of the +dignity of his country.</p> + +<p>Most men, especially great men, do not always know their well-wishers. I +come to rescue that no<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" title="11" class="pagenum"></a>ble lord out of the hands of those he calls his +friends, and even out of his own. I will do him the justice he is denied +at home. He has not been this wicked or imprudent man. He knew that a +repeal had no tendency to produce the mischiefs which give so much alarm +to his honorable friend. His work was not bad in its principle, but +imperfect in its execution; and the motion on your paper presses him +only to complete a proper plan, which, by some unfortunate and +unaccountable error, he had left unfinished.</p> + +<p>I hope, Sir, the honorable gentleman who spoke last is thoroughly +satisfied, and satisfied out of the proceedings of ministry on their own +favorite act, that his fears from a repeal are groundless. If he is not, +I leave him, and the noble lord who sits by him, to settle the matter as +well as they can together; for, if the repeal of American taxes destroys +all our government in America,—he is the man!—and he is the worst of +all the repealers, because he is the last.</p> + +<p>But I hear it rung continually in my ears, now and formerly,—"The +preamble! what will become of the preamble, if you repeal this tax?"—I +am sorry to be compelled so often to expose the calamities and disgraces +of Parliament. The preamble of this law, standing as it now stands, has +the lie direct given to it by the provisionary part of the act: if that +can be called provisionary which makes no provision. I should be afraid +to express myself in this manner, especially in the face of such a +formidable array of ability as is now drawn up before me, composed of +the ancient household troops of that side of the House and the new +recruits from this, if the matter were not clear and indisputable. +Nothing but truth <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" title="12" class="pagenum"></a>could give me this firmness; but plain truth and +clear evidence can be beat down by no ability. The clerk will be so good +as to turn to the act, and to read this favorite preamble.</p> + +<p>"Whereas it is <i>expedient</i> that a revenue should be raised in your +Majesty's dominions in America, for making a more <i>certain</i> and +<i>adequate</i> provision for defraying the charge of the <i>administration of +justice and support of civil government</i> in such provinces where it +shall be found necessary, and towards <i>further defraying</i> the expenses +of <i>defending, protecting, and securing the said dominions</i>."</p> + +<p>You have heard this pompous performance. Now where is the revenue which +is to do all these mighty things? Five sixths +repealed,—abandoned,—sunk,—gone,—lost forever. Does the poor +solitary tea-duty support the purposes of this preamble? Is not the +supply there stated as effectually abandoned as if the tea-duty had +perished in the general wreck? Here, Mr. Speaker, is a precious +mockery:—a preamble without an act,—taxes granted in order to be +repealed,—and the reasons of the grant still carefully kept up! This is +raising a revenue in America! This is preserving dignity in England! If +you repeal this tax, in compliance with the motion, I readily admit that +you lose this fair preamble. Estimate your loss in it. The object of the +act is gone already; and all you suffer is the purging the statute-book +of the opprobrium of an empty, absurd, and false recital.</p> + +<p>It has been said again and again, that the five taxes were repealed on +commercial principles. It is so said in the paper in my hand:<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3" /><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor" +title="Lord Hillsborough's Circular Letter to the Governors of the Colonies, concerning the repeal of some of the duties laid in the Act of 1767.">[3]</a> a paper +which I <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" title="13" class="pagenum"></a>constantly carry about; which I have often used, and shall +often use again. What is got by this paltry pretence of commercial +principles I know not; for, if your government in America is destroyed +by the <i>repeal of taxes</i>, it is of no consequence upon what ideas the +repeal is grounded. Repeal this tax, too, upon commercial principles, if +you please. These principles will serve as well now as they did +formerly. But you know that either your objection to a repeal from these +supposed consequences has no validity, or that this pretence never could +remove it. This commercial motive never was believed by any man, either +in America, which this letter is meant to soothe, or in England, which +it is meant to deceive. It was impossible it should: because every man, +in the least acquainted with the detail of commerce, must know that +several of the articles on which the tax was repealed were fitter +objects of duties than almost any other articles that could possibly be +chosen,—without comparison more so than the tea that was left taxed, as +infinitely less liable to be eluded by contraband. The tax upon red and +white lead was of this nature. You have in this kingdom an advantage in +lead that amounts to a monopoly. When you find yourself in this +situation of advantage, you sometimes venture to tax even your own +export. You did so soon after the last war, when, upon this principle, +you ventured to impose a duty on coals. In all the articles of American +contraband trade, who ever heard of the smuggling of red lead and white +lead? You might, therefore, well enough, without danger of contraband, +and without injury to commerce, (if this were the whole consideration,) +have taxed these commodities. The same may be said of glass. Besides, +some of the <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" title="14" class="pagenum"></a>things taxed were so trivial, that the loss of the objects +themselves, and their utter annihilation out of American commerce, would +have been comparatively as nothing. But is the article of tea such an +object in the trade of England, as not to be felt, or felt but slightly, +like white lead, and red lead, and painters' colors? Tea is an object of +far other importance. Tea is perhaps the most important object, taking +it with its necessary connections, of any in the mighty circle of our +commerce. If commercial principles had been the true motives to the +repeal, or had they been at all attended to, tea would have been the +last article we should have left taxed for a subject of controversy.</p> + +<p>Sir, it is not a pleasant consideration, but nothing in the world can +read so awful and so instructive a lesson as the conduct of ministry in +this business, upon the mischief of not having large and liberal ideas +in the management of great affairs. Never have the servants of the state +looked at the whole of your complicated interests in one connected view. +They have taken things by bits and scraps, some at one time and one +pretence, and some at another, just as they pressed, without any sort of +regard to their relations or dependencies. They never had any kind of +system, right or wrong; but only invented occasionally some miserable +tale for the day, in order meanly to sneak out of difficulties into +which they had proudly strutted. And they were put to all these shifts +and devices, full of meanness and full of mischief, in order to pilfer +piecemeal a repeal of an act which they had not the generous courage, +when they found and felt their error, honorably and fairly to disclaim. +By such management, by the irresistible operation of feeble <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" title="15" class="pagenum"></a>councils, +so paltry a sum as three-pence in the eyes of a financier, so +insignificant an article as tea in the eyes of a philosopher, have +shaken the pillars of a commercial empire that circled the whole globe.</p> + +<p>Do you forget that in the very last year you stood on the precipice of +general bankruptcy? Your danger was indeed great. You were distressed in +the affairs of the East India Company; and you well know what sort of +things are involved in the comprehensive energy of that significant +appellation. I am not called upon to enlarge to you on that danger, +which you thought proper yourselves to aggravate, and to display to the +world with all the parade of indiscreet declamation. The monopoly of the +most lucrative trades and the possession of imperial revenues had +brought you to the verge of beggary and ruin. Such was your +representation; such, in some measure, was your case. The vent of ten +millions of pounds of this commodity, now locked up by the operation of +an injudicious tax, and rotting in the warehouses of the Company, would +have prevented all this distress, and all that series of desperate +measures which you thought yourselves obliged to take in consequence of +it. America would have furnished that vent, which no other part of the +world can furnish but America, where tea is next to a necessary of life, +and where the demand grows upon the supply. I hope our dear-bought East +India Committees have done us at least so much good, as to let us know, +that, without a more extensive sale of that article, our East India +revenues and acquisitions can have no certain connection with this +country. It is through the American trade of tea that your East India +conquests are to be prevented from crushing you with their burden. They +<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" title="16" class="pagenum"></a>are ponderous indeed; and they must have that great country to lean +upon, or they tumble upon your head. It is the same folly that has lost +you at once the benefit of the West and of the East. This folly has +thrown open folding-doors to contraband, and will be the means of giving +the profits of the trade of your colonies to every nation but +yourselves. Never did a people suffer so much for the empty words of a +preamble. It must be given up. For on what principle does it stand? This +famous revenue stands, at this hour, on all the debate, as a description +of revenue not as yet known in all the comprehensive (but too +comprehensive!) vocabulary of finance,—<i>a preambulary tax</i>. It is, +indeed, a tax of sophistry, a tax of pedantry, a tax of disputation, a +tax of war and rebellion, a tax for anything but benefit to the imposers +or satisfaction to the subject.</p> + +<p>Well! but whatever it is, gentlemen will force the colonists to take the +teas. You will force them? Has seven years' struggle been yet able to +force them? Oh, but it seems "we are in the right. The tax is +trifling,—in effect it is rather an exoneration than an imposition; +three fourths of the duty formerly payable on teas exported to America +is taken off,—the place of collection is only shifted; instead of the +retention of a shilling from the drawback here, it is three-pence custom +paid in America." All this, Sir, is very true. But this is the very +folly and mischief of the act. Incredible as it may seem, you know that +you have deliberately thrown away a large duty, which you held secure +and quiet in your hands, for the vain hope of getting one three fourths +less, through every hazard, through certain litigation, and possibly +through war.<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" title="17" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The manner of proceeding in the duties on paper and glass, imposed by +the same act, was exactly in the same spirit. There are heavy excises on +those articles, when used in England. On export, these excises are drawn +back. But instead of withholding the drawback, which might have been +done, with ease, without charge, without possibility of smuggling, and +instead of applying the money (money already in your hands) according to +your pleasure, you began your operations in finance by flinging away +your revenue; you allowed the whole drawback on export, and then you +charged the duty, (which you had before discharged,) payable in the +colonies, where it was certain the collection would devour it to the +bone,—if any revenue were ever suffered to be collected at all. One +spirit pervades and animates the whole mass.</p> + +<p>Could anything be a subject of more just alarm to America than to see +you go out of the plain highroad of finance, and give up your most +certain revenues and your clearest interest, merely for the sake of +insulting your colonies? No man ever doubted that the commodity of tea +could bear an imposition of three-pence. But no commodity will bear +three-pence, or will bear a penny, when the general feelings of men are +irritated, and two millions of people are resolved not to pay. The +feelings of the colonies were formerly the feelings of Great Britain. +Theirs were formerly the feelings of Mr. Hampden, when called upon for +the payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr. +Hampden's fortune? No! but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the +principle it was demanded, would have made him a slave. It is the weight +of that preamble, <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" title="18" class="pagenum"></a>of which you are so fond, and not the weight of the +duty, that the Americans are unable and unwilling to bear.</p> + +<p>It is, then, Sir, upon the <i>principle</i> of this measure, and nothing +else, that we are at issue. It is a principle of political expediency. +Your act of 1767 asserts that it is expedient to raise a revenue in +America; your act of 1769, which takes away that revenue, contradicts +the act of 1767, and, by something much stronger than words, asserts +that it is not expedient. It is a reflection upon your wisdom to persist +in a solemn Parliamentary declaration of the expediency of any object, +for which, at the same time, you make no sort of provision. And pray, +Sir, let not this circumstance escape you,—it is very material, —that +the preamble of this act which we wish to repeal is not <i>declaratory of +a right</i>, as some gentlemen seem to argue it: it is only a recital of +the <i>expediency</i> of a certain exercise of a right supposed already to +have been asserted; an exercise you are now contending for by ways and +means which you confess, though they were obeyed, to be utterly +insufficient for their purpose. You are therefore at this moment in the +awkward situation of fighting for a phantom,—a quiddity,—a thing that +wants, not only a substance, but even a name,—for a thing which is +neither abstract right nor profitable enjoyment.</p> + +<p>They tell you, Sir, that your dignity is tied to it. I know not how it +happens, but this dignify of yours is a terrible incumbrance to you; for +it has of late been ever at war with your interest, your equity, and +every idea of your policy. Show the thing you contend for to be reason, +show it to be common sense, show it to be the means of attaining some +useful <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" title="19" class="pagenum"></a>end, and then I am content to allow it what dignity you please. +But what dignity is derived from the perseverance in absurdity is more +than ever I could discern. The honorable gentleman has said +well,—indeed, in most of his <i>general</i> observations I agree with +him,—he says, that this subject does not stand as it did formerly. Oh, +certainly not! Every hour you continue on this ill-chosen ground, your +difficulties thicken on you; and therefore my conclusion is, remove from +a bad position as quickly as you can. The disgrace, and the necessity of +yielding, both of them, grow upon you every hour of your delay.</p> + +<p>But will you repeal the act, says the honorable gentleman, at this +instant, when America is in open resistance to your authority, and that +you have just revived your system of taxation? He thinks he has driven +us into a corner. But thus pent up, I am content to meet him; because I +enter the lists supported by my old authority, his new friends, the +ministers themselves. The honorable gentleman remembers that about five +years ago as great disturbances as the present prevailed in America on +account of the new taxes. The ministers represented these disturbances +as treasonable; and this House thought proper, on that representation, +to make a famous address for a revival and for a new application of a +statute of Henry the Eighth. We besought the king, in that +well-considered address, to inquire into treasons, and to bring the +supposed traitors from America to Great Britain for trial. His Majesty +was pleased graciously to promise a compliance with our request. All the +attempts from this side of the House to resist these violences, and to +bring about a repeal, were treated with the utmost scorn. An +apprehension of the very <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" title="20" class="pagenum"></a>consequences now stated by the honorable +gentleman was then given as a reason for shutting the door against all +hope of such an alteration. And so strong was the spirit for supporting +the new taxes, that the session concluded with the following remarkable +declaration. After stating the vigorous measures which had been pursued, +the speech from the throne proceeds:—</p> + +<p>"You have assured me of your <i>firm</i> support in the <i>prosecution</i> of +them. Nothing, in my opinion, could be more likely to enable the +well-disposed among my subjects in that part of the world effectually to +discourage and defeat the designs of the factious and seditious than the +hearty concurrence of every branch of the legislature in the resolution +of <i>maintaining the execution of the laws in every</i> part of my +dominions."</p> + +<p>After this no man dreamt that a repeal under this ministry could +possibly take place. The honorable gentleman knows as well as I, that +the idea was utterly exploded by those who sway the House. This speech +was made on the ninth day of May, 1769. Five days after this speech, +that is, on the thirteenth of the same month, the public circular +letter, a part of which I am going to read to you, was written by Lord +Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies. After reciting the +substance of the king's speech, he goes on thus:—</p> + +<p>"I can take upon me to assure you, notwithstanding insinuations to the +contrary from men with <i>factious and seditious views</i>, that his +Majesty's <i>present administration have at no time entertained a design +to propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes upon America, for the +purpose of</i> RAISING A REVENUE; and that it is at present their intention +to pro<a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" title="21" class="pagenum"></a>pose, the next session of Parliament, to take off the duties upon +glass, paper, and colors, upon consideration of such duties <i>having been +laid contrary to the true principles of commerce</i>.</p> + +<p>"These have <i>always</i> been, and <i>still are</i>, the sentiments of <i>his +Majesty's present servants</i>, and by which their conduct <i>in respect to +America has been governed.</i> And <i>his Majesty</i> relies upon your prudence +and fidelity for such an explanation of <i>his</i> measures as may tend to +remove the prejudices which have been excited by the misrepresentations +of those who are enemies to the peace and prosperity of Great Britain +and her colonies, and to reëstablish that mutual <i>confidence and +affection</i> upon which the glory and safety of the British empire +depend."</p> + +<p>Here, Sir, is a canonical boot of ministerial scripture: the general +epistle to the Americans. What does the gentleman say to it? Here a +repeal is promised,—promised without condition,—and while your +authority was actually resisted. I pass by the public promise of a peer +relative to the repeal of taxes by this House. I pass by the use of the +king's name in a matter of supply, that sacred and reserved right of the +Commons. I conceal the ridiculous figure of Parliament hurling its +thunders at the gigantic rebellion of America, and then, five days +after, prostrate at the feet of those assemblies we affected to +despise,—begging them, by the intervention of our ministerial sureties, +to receive our submission, and heartily promising amendment. These might +have been serious matters formerly; but we are grown wiser than our +fathers. Passing, therefore, from the Constitutional consideration to +the mere policy, does not this letter imply that the idea of taxing +America <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" title="22" class="pagenum"></a>for the purpose of revenue is an abominable project, when the +ministry suppose none but <i>factious</i> men, and with seditious views, +could charge them with it? does not this letter adopt and sanctify the +American distinction of <i>taxing for a revenue</i>? does it not formally +reject all future taxation on that principle? does it not state the +ministerial rejection of such principle of taxation, not as the +occasional, but the constant opinion of the king's servants? does it not +say, (I care not how consistently,) but does it not say, that their +conduct with regard to America has been <i>always</i> governed by this +policy? It goes a great deal further. These excellent and trusty +servants of the king, justly fearful lest they themselves should have +lost all credit with the world, bring out the image of their gracious +sovereign from the inmost and most sacred shrine, and they pawn him as a +security for their promises:—"<i>His Majesty</i> relies on your prudence and +fidelity for such an explanation of <i>his</i> measures." These sentiments of +the minister and these measures of his Majesty can only relate to the +principle and practice of taxing for a revenue; and accordingly Lord +Botetourt, stating it as such, did, with great propriety, and in the +exact spirit of his instructions, endeavor to remove the fears of the +Virginian assembly lest the sentiments which it seems (unknown to the +world) had <i>always</i> been those of the ministers, and by which <i>their</i> +conduct <i>in respect to America had been governed</i>, should by some +possible revolution, favorable to wicked American taxers, be hereafter +counteracted. He addresses them in this manner:—</p> + +<p>"It may possibly be objected, that, as his Majesty's present +administration are <i>not immortal</i>, their succes<a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" title="23" class="pagenum"></a>sors may be inclined to +attempt to undo what the present ministers shall have attempted to +perform; and to that objection I can give but this answer: that it is my +firm opinion, that the plan I have stated to you will certainly take +place, and that it will never be departed from; and so determined am I +forever to abide by it, that I will be content to be declared infamous, +if I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all times, in all places, +and upon all occasions, exert every power with which I either am or ever +shall be legally invested, in order to obtain and <i>maintain</i> for the +continent of America that <i>satisfaction</i> which I have been authorized to +promise this day by the <i>confidential</i> servants of our gracious +sovereign, who to my certain knowledge rates his honor so high <i>that he +would rather part with his crown than preserve it by deceit</i>."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4" /><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor" +title="A material point is omitted by Mr. Burke in this speech, viz. the manner in which the continent received +this royal assurance. The assembly of Virginia, in their address in answer to Lord Botetourt's speech, express +themselves thus:-"We will not suffer our present hopes, arising from the pleasing prospect your Lordship +hath so kindly opened and displayed to us, to be lashed by the bitter reflection that any future administration +will entertain a wish to depart from that plan which affords the surest and most permanent foundation of public +tranquillity and happiness. No, my Lord, we are sure our most gracious sovereign, under whatever changes may +happen in his confidential servants, will remain immutable in the ways of truth and justice, and that he is +incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects; and we esteem your Lordship's information not only as warranted, +but even sanctified by the royal word."">[4]</a></p> + +<p>A glorious and true character! which (since we suffer his ministers with +impunity to answer for his ideas of taxation) we ought to make it our +business to enable his Majesty to preserve in all its lustre. Let him +have character, since ours is no more! Let some part of government be +kept in respect!<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" title="24" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>This epistle was not the letter of Lord Hillsborough solely, though he +held the official pen. It was the letter of the noble lord upon the +floor,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5" /><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor" +title="Lord North.">[5]</a> and of all the king's then ministers, who (with, I think, the +exception of two only) are his ministers at this hour. The very first +news that a British Parliament heard of what it was to do with the +duties which it had given and granted to the king was by the publication +of the votes of American assemblies. It was in America that your +resolutions were pre-declared. It was from thence that we knew to a +certainty how much exactly, and not a scruple more nor less, we were to +repeal. We were unworthy to be let into the secret of our own conduct. +The assemblies had <i>confidential</i> communications from his Majesty's +<i>confidential</i> servants. We were nothing but instruments. Do you, after +this, wonder that you have no weight and no respect in the colonies? +After this are you surprised that Parliament is every day and everywhere +losing (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it with reluctance) that +reverential affection which so endearing a name of authority ought ever +to carry with it? that you are obeyed solely from respect to the +bayonet? and that this House, the ground and pillar of freedom, is +itself held up only by the treacherous underpinning and clumsy +buttresses of arbitrary power?</p> + +<p>If this dignity, which is to stand in the place of just policy and +common sense, had been consulted, there was a time for preserving it, +and for reconciling it with any concession. If in the session of 1768, +that session of idle terror and empty menaces, you had, as you were +often pressed to do, repealed these taxes, then your strong operations +would have come <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" title="25" class="pagenum"></a>justified and enforced, in case your concessions had +been returned by outrages. But, preposterously, you began with violence; +and before terrors could have any effect, either good or bad, your +ministers immediately begged pardon, and promised that repeal to the +obstinate Americans which they had refused in an easy, good-natured, +complying British Parliament. The assemblies, which had been publicly +and avowedly dissolved for <i>their</i> contumacy, are called together to +receive <i>your</i> submission. Your ministerial directors blustered like +tragic tyrants here; and then went mumping with a sore leg in America, +canting, and whining, and complaining of faction, which represented them +as friends to a revenue from the colonies. I hope nobody in this House +will hereafter have the impudence to defend American taxes in the name +of ministry. The moment they do, with this letter of attorney in my +hand, I will tell them, in the authorized terms, they are wretches "with +factious and seditious views," "enemies to the peace and prosperity of +the mother country and the colonies," and subverters "of the mutual +affection and confidence on which the glory and safety of the British +empire depend."</p> + +<p>After this letter, the question is no more on propriety or dignity. They +are gone already. The faith of your sovereign is pledged for the +political principle. The general declaration in the letter goes to the +whole of it. You must therefore either abandon the scheme of taxing, or +you must send the ministers tarred and feathered to America, who dared +to hold out the royal faith for a renunciation of all taxes for revenue. +Them you must punish, or this faith you must preserve. The preservation +of this faith is of more consequence than the duties on <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" title="26" class="pagenum"></a><i>red lead</i>, or +<i>white lead</i>, or on broken <i>glass</i>, or <i>atlas-ordinary</i>, or <i>demy-fine</i>, +or <i>blue-royal</i>, or <i>bastard</i>, or <i>fools cap</i>, which you have given up, +or the three-pence on tea which you retained. The letter went stamped +with the public authority of this kingdom. The instructions for the +colony government go under no other sanction; and America cannot +believe, and will not obey you, if you do not preserve this channel of +communication sacred. You are now punishing the colonies for acting on +distinctions held out by that very ministry which is here shining in +riches, in favor, and in power, and urging the punishment of the very +offence to which they had themselves been the tempters.</p> + +<p>Sir, if reasons respecting simply your own commerce, which is your own +convenience, were the sole grounds of the repeal of the five duties, why +does Lord Hillsborough, in disclaiming in the name of the king and +ministry their ever having had an intent to tax for revenue, mention it +as the means "of reëstablishing the confidence and affection of the +colonies?" Is it a way of soothing <i>others</i>, to assure them that you +will take good care of <i>yourself</i>? The medium, the only medium, for +regaining their affection and confidence is that you will take off +something oppressive to their minds. Sir, the letter strongly enforces +that idea: for though the repeal of the taxes is promised on commercial +principles, yet the means of counteracting the "insinuations of men with +factious and seditious views" is by a disclaimer of the intention of +taxing for revenue, as a constant, invariable sentiment and rule of +conduct in the government of America.</p> + +<p>I remember that the noble lord on the floor, not in a former debate to +be sure, (it would be disorderly <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" title="27" class="pagenum"></a>to refer to it, I suppose I read it +somewhere,) but the noble lord was pleased to say, that he did not +conceive how it could enter into the head of man to impose such taxes as +those of 1767: I mean those taxes which he voted for imposing, and voted +for repealing,—as being taxes, contrary to all the principles of +commerce, laid on <i>British manufactures</i>.</p> + +<p>I dare say the noble lord is perfectly well read, because the duty of +his particular office requires he should be so, in all our revenue laws, +and in the policy which is to be collected out of them. Now, Sir, when +he had read this act of American revenue, and a little recovered from +his astonishment, I suppose he made one step retrograde (it is but one) +and looked at the act which stands just before in the statute-book. The +American revenue act is the forty-fifth chapter; the other to which I +refer is the forty-fourth of the same session. These two acts are both +to the same purpose: both revenue acts; both taxing out of the kingdom; +and both taxing British manufactures exported. As the forty-fifth is an +act for raising a revenue in America, the forty-fourth is an act for +raising a revenue in the Isle of Man. The two acts perfectly agree in +all respects, except one. In the act for taxing the Isle of Man the +noble lord will find, not, as in the American act, four or fire +articles, but almost the <i>whole body</i> of British manufactures, taxed +from two and a half to fifteen per cent, and some articles, such as that +of spirits, a great deal higher. You did not think it uncommercial to +tax the whole mass of your manufactures, and, let me add, your +agriculture too; for, I now recollect, British corn is there also taxed +up to ten per cent, and this too in the very head-quarters, the very +citadel of <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" title="28" class="pagenum"></a>smuggling, the Isle of Man. Now will the noble lord +condescend to tell me why he repealed the taxes on your manufactures +sent out to America, and not the taxes on the manufactures exported to +the Isle of Man? The principle was exactly the same, the objects charged +infinitely more extensive, the duties without comparison higher. Why? +Why, notwithstanding all his childish pretexts, because the taxes were +quietly submitted to in the Isle of Man, and because they raised a flame +in America. Your reasons were political, not commercial. The repeal was +made, as Lord Hillsborough's letter well expresses it, to regain "the +confidence and affection of the colonies, on which the glory and safety +of the British empire depend." A wise and just motive, surely, if ever +there was such. But the mischief and dishonor is, that you have not done +what you had given the colonies just cause to expect, when your +ministers disclaimed the idea of taxes for a revenue. There is nothing +simple, nothing manly, nothing ingenuous, open, decisive, or steady, in +the proceeding, with regard either to the continuance or the repeal of +the taxes. The whole has an air of littleness and fraud. The article of +tea is slurred over in the circular letter, as it were by accident: +nothing is said of a resolution either to keep that tax or to give it +up. There is no fair dealing in any part of the transaction.</p> + +<p>If you mean to follow your true motive and your public faith, give up +your tax on tea for raising a revenue, the principle of which has, in +effect, been disclaimed in your name, and which produces you no +advantage,—no, not a penny. Or, if you choose to go on with a poor +pretence instead of a solid rea<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" title="29" class="pagenum"></a>son, and will still adhere to your cant +of commerce, you have ten thousand times more strong commercial reasons +for giving up this duty on tea than for abandoning the five others that +you have already renounced.</p> + +<p>The American consumption of teas is annually, I believe, worth 300,000<i>l.</i> +at the least farthing. If you urge the American violence as a +justification of your perseverance in enforcing this tax, you know that +you can never answer this plain question,—Why did you repeal the others +given in the same act, whilst the very same violence subsisted?—But you +did not find the violence cease upon that concession.—No! because the +concession was far short of satisfying the principle which Lord +Hillsborough had abjured, or even the pretence on which the repeal of +the other taxes was announced; and because, by enabling the East India +Company to open a shop for defeating the American resolution not to pay +that specific tax, you manifestly showed a hankering after the principle +of the act which you formerly had renounced. Whatever road you take +leads to a compliance with this motion. It opens to you at the end of +every visto. Your commerce, your policy, your promises, your reasons, +your pretences, your consistency, your inconsistency,—all jointly +oblige you to this repeal.</p> + +<p>But still it sticks in our throats, if we go so far, the Americans will +go farther.—We do not know that. We ought, from experience, rather to +presume the contrary. Do we not know for certain, that the Americans are +going on as fast as possible, whilst we refuse to gratify them? Can they +do more, or can they do worse, if we yield this point? I think this +concession will rather fix a turnpike to prevent their <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" title="30" class="pagenum"></a>further +progress. It is impossible to answer for bodies of men. But I am sure +the natural effect of fidelity, clemency, kindness in governors is +peace, good-will, order, and esteem, on the part of the governed. I +would certainly, at least, give these fair principles a fair trial; +which, since the making of this act to this hour, they never have had.</p> + +<p>Sir, the honorable gentleman having spoken what he thought necessary +upon the narrow part of the subject, I have given him, I hope, a +satisfactory answer. He next presses me, by a variety of direct +challenges and oblique reflections, to say something on the historical +part. I shall therefore, Sir, open myself fully on that important and +delicate subject: not for the sake of telling you a long story, (which, +I know, Mr. Speaker, you are not particularly fond of,) but for the sake +of the weighty instruction that, I flatter myself, will necessarily +result from it. It shall not be longer, if I can help it, than so +serious a matter requires.</p> + +<p>Permit me then, Sir, to lead your attention very far back,—back to the +Act of Navigation, the cornerstone of the policy of this country with +regard to its colonies. Sir, that policy was, from the beginning, purely +commercial; and the commercial system was wholly restrictive. It was the +system of a monopoly. No trade was let loose from that constraint, but +merely to enable the colonists to dispose of what, in the course of your +trade, you could not take,—or to enable them to dispose of such +articles as we forced upon them, and for which, without some degree of +liberty, they could not pay. Hence all your specific and detailed +enumerations; hence the innumerable checks and counterchecks; hence that +infinite variety of paper <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" title="31" class="pagenum"></a>chains by which you bind together this +complicated system of the colonies. This principle of commercial +monopoly runs through no less than twenty-nine acts of Parliament, from +the year 1660 to the unfortunate period of 1764.</p> + +<p>In all those acts the system of commerce is established as that from +whence alone you proposed to make the colonies contribute (I mean +directly and by the operation of your superintending legislative power) +to the strength of the empire. I venture to say, that, during that whole +period, a Parliamentary revenue from thence was never once in +contemplation. Accordingly, in all the number of laws passed with regard +to the plantations, the words which distinguish revenue laws +specifically as such were, I think, premeditately avoided. I do not say, +Sir, that a form of words alters the nature of the law, or abridges the +power of the lawgiver. It certainly does not. How ever, titles and +formal preambles are not always idle words; and the lawyers frequently +argue from them. I state these facts to show, not what was your right, +but what has been your settled policy. Our revenue laws have usually a +<i>title</i>, purporting their being <i>grants</i>; and the words "<i>give and +grant</i>" usually precede the enacting parts. Although duties were imposed +on America in acts of King Charles the Second, and in acts of King +William, no one title of giving "an aid to his Majesty," or any other of +the usual titles to revenue acts, was to be found in any of them till +1764; nor were the words "give and grant" in any preamble until the +sixth of George the Second. However, the title of this act of George the +Second, notwithstanding the words of donation, considers it merely as a +regulation of trade; "An act for the better securing of the trade of his +Maj<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" title="32" class="pagenum"></a>esty's sugar colonies in America." This act was made on a compromise +of all, and at the express desire of a part, of the colonies themselves. +It was therefore in some measure with their consent; and having a title +directly purporting only a <i>commercial regulation</i>, and being in truth +nothing more, the words were passed by, at a time when no jealousy was +entertained, and things were little scrutinized. Even Governor Bernard, +in his second printed letter, dated in 1763, gives it as his opinion, +that "it was an act of <i>prohibition</i>, not of revenue." This is certainly +true, that no act avowedly for the purpose of revenue, and with the +ordinary title and recital taken together, is found in the statute-book +until the year I have mentioned: that is, the year 1764. All before this +period stood on commercial regulation and restraint. The scheme of a +colony revenue by British authority appeared, therefore, to the +Americans in the light of a great innovation. The words of Governor +Bernard's ninth letter, written in November, 1765, state this idea very +strongly. "It must," says he, "have been supposed <i>such an innovation as +a Parliamentary taxation</i> would cause a great <i>alarm</i>, and meet with +much <i>opposition</i> in most parts of America; it was <i>quite new</i> to the +people, and had no <i>visible bounds</i> set to it." After stating the +weakness of government there, he says, "Was this a time to introduce <i>so +great a novelty</i> as a Parliamentary inland taxation in America?" +Whatever the right might have been, this mode of using it was absolutely +new in policy and practice.</p> + +<p>Sir, they who are friends to the schemes of American revenue say, that +the commercial restraint is full as hard a law for America to live +under. I think so, too. I think it, if uncompensated, to be a condition +<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" title="33" class="pagenum"></a>of as rigorous servitude as men can be subject to. But America bore it +from the fundamental Act of Navigation until 1764. Why? Because men do +bear the inevitable constitution of their original nature with all its +infirmities. The Act of Navigation attended the colonies from their +infancy, grow with their growth, and strengthened with their strength +They were confirmed in obedience to it even more by usage than by law. +They scarcely had remembered a time when they were not subject to such +restraint. Besides, they were indemnified for it by a pecuniary +compensation. Their monopolist happened to be one of the richest men in +the world. By his immense capital (primarily employed, not for their +benefit, but his own) they were enabled to proceed with their fisheries, +their agriculture, their shipbuilding, (and their trade, too, within the +limits,) in such a manner as got far the start of the slow, languid +operations of unassisted Nature. This capital was a hot-bed to them. +Nothing in the history of mankind is like their progress. For my part, I +never cast an eye on their flourishing commerce, and their cultivated +and commodious life, but they seem to me rather ancient nations grown to +perfection through a long series of fortunate events, and a train of +successful industry, accumulating wealth in many centuries, than the +colonies of yesterday,—than a set of miserable outcasts a few years +ago, not so much sent as thrown out on the bleak and barren shore of a +desolate wilderness three thousand miles from all civilized intercourse.</p> + +<p>All this was done by England whilst England pursued trade and forgot +revenue. You not only acquired commerce, but you actually created the +very <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" title="34" class="pagenum"></a>objects of trade in America; and by that creation you raised the +trade of this kingdom at least fourfold. America had the compensation of +your capital, which made her bear her servitude. She had another +compensation, which you are now going to take away from her. She had, +except the commercial restraint, every characteristic mark of a free +people in all her internal concerns. She had the image of the British +Constitution. She had the substance. She was taxed by her own +representatives. She chose most of her own magistrates. She paid them +all. She had in effect the sole disposal of her own internal government. +This whole state of commercial servitude and civil liberty, taken +together, is certainly not perfect freedom; but comparing it with the +ordinary circumstances of human nature, it was an happy and a liberal +condition.</p> + +<p>I know, Sir, that great and not unsuccessful pains have been taken to +inflame our minds by an outcry, in this House, and out of it, that in +America the Act of Navigation neither is or never was obeyed. But if you +take the colonies through, I affirm that its authority never was +disputed,—that it was nowhere disputed for any length of time,—and, on +the whole, that it was well observed. Wherever the act pressed hard, +many individuals, indeed, evaded it. This is nothing. These scattered +individuals never denied the law, and never obeyed it. Just as it +happens, whenever the laws of trade, whenever the laws of revenue, press +hard upon the people in England: in that case all your shores are full +of contraband. Your right to give a monopoly to the East India Company, +your right to lay immense duties on French brandy, are not disputed in +England. You do not make this <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" title="35" class="pagenum"></a>charge on any man. But you know that +there is not a creek from Pentland Frith to the Isle of Wight in which +they do not smuggle immense quantities of teas, East India goods, and +brandies. I take it for granted that the authority of Governor Bernard +in this point is indisputable. Speaking of these laws, as they regarded +that part of America now in so unhappy a condition, he says, "I believe +they are nowhere better supported than in this province: I do not +pretend that it is entirely free from a breach of these laws, but that +such a breach, if discovered, is justly punished." What more can you say +of the obedience to any laws in any country? An obedience to these laws +formed the acknowledgment, instituted by yourselves, for your +superiority, and was the payment you originally imposed for your +protection.</p> + +<p>Whether you were right or wrong in establishing the colonies on the +principles of commercial monopoly, rather than on that of revenue, is at +this day a problem of mere speculation. You cannot have both by the same +authority. To join together the restraints of an universal internal and +external monopoly with an universal internal and external taxation is an +unnatural union,—perfect, uncompensated slavery. You have long since +decided for yourself and them; and you and they have prospered +exceedingly under that decision.</p> + +<p>This nation, Sir, never thought of departing from that choice until the +period immediately on the close of the last war. Then a scheme of +government, new in many things, seemed to have been adopted. I saw, or +thought I saw, several symptoms of a great change, whilst I sat in your +gallery, a good while before I had <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" title="36" class="pagenum"></a>the honor of a seat in this House. +At that period the necessity was established of keeping up no less than +twenty new regiments, with twenty colonels capable of seats in this +House. This scheme was adopted with very general applause from all +sides, at the very time that, by your conquests in America, your danger +from foreign attempts in that part of the world was much lessened, or +indeed rather quite over. When this huge increase of military +establishment was resolved on, a revenue was to be found to support so +great a burden. Country gentlemen, the great patrons of economy, and the +great resisters of a standing armed force, would not have entered with +much alacrity into the vote for so large and so expensive an army, if +they had been very sure that they were to continue to pay for it. But +hopes of another kind were held out to them; and in particular, I well +remember that Mr. Townshend, in a brilliant harangue on this subject, +did dazzle them by playing before their eyes the image of a revenue to +be raised in America.</p> + +<p>Here began to dawn the first glimmerings of this new colony system. It +appeared more distinctly afterwards, when it was devolved upon a person +to whom, on other accounts, this country owes very great obligations. I +do believe that he had a very serious desire to benefit the public. But +with no small study of the detail, he did not seem to have his view, at +least equally, carried to the total circuit of our affairs. He generally +considered his objects in lights that were rather too detached. Whether +the business of an American revenue was imposed upon him +altogether,—whether it was entirely the result of his own speculation, +or, what is more probable, that <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" title="37" class="pagenum"></a>his own ideas rather coincided with the +instructions he had received,—certain it is, that, with the best +intentions in the world, he first brought this fatal scheme into form, +and established it by Act of Parliament.</p> + +<p>No man can believe, that, at this time of day, I mean to lean on the +venerable memory of a great man, whose loss we deplore in common. Our +little party differences have been long ago composed; and I have acted +more with him, and certainly with more pleasure with him, than ever I +acted against him. Undoubtedly Mr. Grenville was a first-rate figure in +this country. With a masculine understanding, and a stout and resolute +heart, he had an application undissipated and unwearied. He took public +business, not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was +to enjoy; and he seemed to have no delight out of this House, except in +such things as some way related to the business that was to be done +within it. If he was ambitious, I will say this for him, his ambition +was of a noble and generous strain. It was to raise himself, not by the +low, pimping politics of a court, but to win his way to power through +the laborious gradations of public service, and to secure himself a +well-earned rank in Parliament by a thorough knowledge of its +constitution and a perfect practice in all its business.</p> + +<p>Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be from defects not +intrinsical; they must be rather sought in the particular habits of his +life, which, though they do not alter the groundwork of character, yet +tinge it with their own hue. He was bred in a profession. He was bred to +the law, which is, in my opinion, one of the first and noblest of human +sci<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" title="38" class="pagenum"></a>ences,—a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the +understanding than all the other kinds of learning put together; but it +is not apt, except in persons very happily born, to open and to +liberalize the mind exactly in the same proportion. Passing from that +study, he did not go very largely into the world, but plunged into +business,—I mean into the business of office, and the limited and fixed +methods and forms established there. Much knowledge is to be had, +undoubtedly, in that line; and there is no knowledge which is not +valuable. But it may be truly said, that men too much conversant in +office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement. Their habits of +office are apt to give them a turn to think the substance of business +not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted. +These forms are adapted to ordinary occasions; and therefore persons who +are nurtured in office do admirably well as long as things go on in +their common order; but when the high-roads are broken up, and the +waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file +affords no precedent, then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind, +and a far more extensive comprehension of things is requisite, than ever +office gave, or than office can ever give. Mr. Grenville thought better +of the wisdom and power of human legislation than in truth it deserves. +He conceived, and many conceived along with him, that the flourishing +trade of this country was greatly owing to law and institution, and not +quite so much to liberty; for but too many are apt to believe regulation +to be commerce, and taxes to be revenue. Among regulations, that which +stood first in reputation was his idol: I mean the Act of Navigation. He +has often <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" title="39" class="pagenum"></a>professed it to be so. The policy of that act is, I readily +admit, in many respects well understood. But I do say, that, if the act +be suffered to run the full length of its principle, and is not changed +and modified according to the change of times and the fluctuation of +circumstances, it must do great mischief, and frequently even defeat its +own purpose.</p> + +<p>After the war, and in the last years of it, the trade of America had +increased far beyond the speculations of the most sanguine imaginations. +It swelled out on every side. It filled all its proper channels to the +brim. It overflowed with a rich redundance, and breaking its banks on +the right and on the left, it spread out upon some places where it was +indeed improper, upon others where it was only irregular. It is the +nature of all greatness not to be exact; and great trade will always be +attended with considerable abuses. The contraband will always keep pace +in some measure with the fair trade. It should stand as a fundamental +maxim, that no vulgar precaution ought to be employed in the cure of +evils which are closely connected with the cause of our prosperity. +Perhaps this great person turned his eyes somewhat less than was just +towards the incredible increase of the fair trade, and looked with +something of too exquisite a jealousy towards the contraband. He +certainly felt a singular degree of anxiety on the subject, and even +began to act from that passion earlier than is commonly imagined. For +whilst he was First Lord of the Admiralty, though not strictly called +upon in his official line, he presented a very strong memorial to the +Lords of the Treasury, (my Lord Bute was then at the head of the board,) +heavily complaining of the growth of the illicit commerce in America.<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" title="40" class="pagenum"></a> +Some mischief happened even at that time from this over-earnest zeal. +Much greater happened afterwards, when it operated with greater power in +the highest department of the finances. The bonds of the Act of +Navigation were straitened so much that America was on the point of +having no trade, either contraband or legitimate. They found, under the +construction and execution then used, the act no longer tying, but +actually strangling them. All this coming with new enumerations of +commodities, with regulations which in a manner put a stop to the mutual +coasting intercourse of the colonies, with the appointment of courts of +admiralty under various improper circumstances, with a sudden extinction +of the paper currencies, with a compulsory provision for the quartering +of soldiers,—the people of America thought themselves proceeded against +as delinquents, or, at best, as people under suspicion of delinquency, +and in such a manner as they imagined their recent services in the war +did not at all merit. Any of these innumerable regulations, perhaps, +would not have alarmed alone; some might be thought reasonable; the +multitude struck them with terror.</p> + +<p>But the grand manoeuvre in that business of new regulating the colonies +was the fifteenth act of the fourth of George the Third, which, besides +containing several of the matters to which I have just alluded, opened a +new principle. And here properly began the second period of the policy +of this country with regard to the colonies, by which the scheme of a +regular plantation Parliamentary revenue was adopted in theory and +settled in practice: a revenue not substituted in the place of, but +superadded to, a monopoly; which monopoly was enforced at the same time +with <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" title="41" class="pagenum"></a>additional strictness, and the execution put into military hands.</p> + +<p>This act, Sir, had for the first time the title of "granting duties in +the colonies and plantations of America," and for the first time it was +asserted in the preamble "that it was <i>just</i> and <i>necessary</i> that a +revenue should be raised there"; then came the technical words of +"giving and granting." And thus a complete American revenue act was made +in all the forms, and with a full avowal of the right, equity, policy, +and even necessity, of taxing the colonies, without any formal consent +of theirs. There are contained also in the preamble to that act these +very remarkable words,—the Commons, &c., "being desirous to make <i>some</i> +provision in the <i>present</i> session of Parliament <i>towards</i> raising the +said revenue." By these words it appeared to the colonies that this act +was but a beginning of sorrows,—that every session was to produce +something of the same kind,—that we were to go on, from day to day, in +charging them with such taxes as we pleased, for such a military force +as we should think proper. Had this plan been pursued, it was evident +that the provincial assemblies, in which the Americans felt all their +portion of importance, and beheld their sole image of freedom, were +<i>ipso facto</i> annihilated. This ill prospect before them seemed to be +boundless in extent and endless in duration. Sir, they were not +mistaken. The ministry valued themselves when this act passed, and when +they gave notice of the Stamp Act, that both of the duties came very +short of their ideas of American taxation. Great was the applause of +this measure here. In England we cried out for new taxes on America, +whilst they cried out that they were nearly <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" title="42" class="pagenum"></a>crushed with those which +the war and their own grants had brought upon them.</p> + +<p>Sir, it has been said in the debate, that, when the first American +revenue act (the act in 1764, imposing the port-duties) passed, the +Americans did not object to the principle. It is true they touched it +but very tenderly. It was not a direct attack. They were, it is true, as +yet novices,—as yet unaccustomed to direct attacks upon any of the +rights of Parliament. The duties were port-duties, like those they had +been accustomed to bear,—with this difference, that the title was not +the same, the preamble not the same, and the spirit altogether unlike. +But of what service is this observation to the cause of those that make +it? It is a full refutation of the pretence for their present cruelty to +America; for it shows, out of their own mouths, that our colonies were +backward to enter into the present vexatious and ruinous controversy.</p> + +<p>There is also another circulation abroad, (spread with a malignant +intention, which I cannot attribute to those who say the same thing in +this House,) that Mr. Grenville gave the colony agents an option for +their assemblies to tax themselves, which they had refused. I find that +much stress is laid on this, as a fact. However, it happens neither to +be true nor possible. I will observe, first, that Mr. Grenville never +thought fit to make this apology for himself in the innumerable debates +that were had upon the subject. He might have proposed to the colony +agents, that they should agree in some mode of taxation as the ground of +an act of Parliament. But he never could have proposed that they should +tax themselves on requisition, which is, the assertion of the day. +Indeed,<a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" title="43" class="pagenum"></a> Mr. Grenville well knew that the colony agents could have no +general powers to consent to it; and they had no time to consult their +assemblies for particular powers, before he passed his first revenue +act. If you compare dates, you will find it impossible. Burdened as the +agents knew the colonies were at that time, they could not give the +least hope of such grants. His own favorite governor was of opinion that +the Americans were not then taxable objects.</p> + +<p>"Nor was the time less favorable to the <i>equity</i> of such a taxation. I +don't mean to dispute the reasonableness of America contributing to the +charges of Great Britain, <i>when she is able</i>; nor, I believe, would the +Americans themselves have disputed it at a <i>proper time and season</i>. But +it should be considered, that the American governments themselves have, +in the prosecution of the late war, contracted very large debts, which +it will take some years to pay off, and in the mean time occasion very +<i>burdensome taxes for that purpose</i> only. For instance, this government, +which is as much beforehand as any, raises every year 37,500<i>l.</i> +sterling for sinking their debt, and must continue it for four years +longer at least before it will be clear."</p> + +<p>These are the words of Governor Bernard's letter to a member of the old +ministry, and which he has since printed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Grenville could not have made this proposition to the agents for +another reason. He was of opinion, which he has declared in this House +an hundred times, that the colonies could not legally grant any revenue +to the crown, and that infinite mischiefs would be the consequence of +such a power. When Mr. Grenville had passed the first revenue act, and +in the same session had made this House come to a res<a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" title="44" class="pagenum"></a>olution for laying +a stamp-duty on America, between that time and the passing the Stamp Act +into a law he told a considerable and most respectable merchant, a +member of this House, whom I am truly sorry I do not now see in his +place, when he represented against this proceeding, that, if the +stamp-duty was disliked, he was willing to exchange it for any other +equally productive,—but that, if he objected to the Americans being +taxed by Parliament, he might save himself the trouble of the +discussion, as he was determined on the measure. This is the fact, and, +if you please, I will mention a very unquestionable authority for it.</p> + +<p>Thus, Sir, I have disposed of this falsehood. But falsehood has a +perennial spring. It is said that no conjecture could be made of the +dislike of the colonies to the principle. This is as untrue as the +other. After the resolution of the House, and before the passing of the +Stamp Act, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and New York did send +remonstrances objecting to this mode of Parliamentary taxation. What was +the consequence? They were suppressed, they were put under the table, +notwithstanding an order of Council to the contrary, by the ministry +which composed the very Council that had made the order; and thus the +House proceeded to its business of taxing without the least regular +knowledge of the objections which were made to it. But to give that +House its due, it was not over-desirous to receive information or to +hear remonstrance. On the 15th of February, 1765, whilst the Stamp Act +was under deliberation, they refused with scorn even so much as to +receive four petitions presented from so respectable colonies as +Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Carolina, besides one from the +traders of Jamaica. As to the <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" title="45" class="pagenum"></a>colonies, they had no alternative left to +them but to disobey, or to pay the taxes imposed by that Parliament, +which was not suffered, or did not suffer itself, even to hear them +remonstrate upon the subject.</p> + +<p>This was the state of the colonies before his Majesty thought fit to +change his ministers. It stands upon no authority of mine. It is proved +by uncontrovertible records. The honorable gentleman has desired some of +us to lay our hands upon our hearts and answer to his queries upon the +historical part of this consideration, and by his manner (as well as my +eyes could discern it) he seemed to address himself to me.</p> + +<p>Sir, I will answer him as clearly as I am able, and with great openness: +I have nothing to conceal. In the year sixty-five, being in a very +private station, far enough from any line of business, and not having +the honor of a seat in this House, it was my fortune, unknowing and +unknown to the then ministry, by the intervention of a common friend, to +become connected with a very noble person, and at the head of the +Treasury Department. It was, indeed, in a situation of little rank and +no consequence, suitable to the mediocrity of my talents and +pretensions,—but a situation near enough to enable me to see, as well +as others, what was going on; and I did see in that noble person such +sound principles, such an enlargement of mind, such clear and sagacious +sense, and such unshaken fortitude, as have bound me, as well as others +much better than me, by an inviolable attachment to him from that time +forward. Sir, Lord Rockingham very early in that summer received a +strong representation from many weighty English merchants and +manufacturers, from governors of provinces and commanders of men-of-war, +against almost the whole of the Amer<a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" title="46" class="pagenum"></a>ican commercial regulations,—and +particularly with regard to the total ruin which was threatened to the +Spanish trade. I believe, Sir, the noble lord soon saw his way in this +business. But he did not rashly determine against acts which it might be +supposed were the result of much deliberation. However, Sir, he scarcely +began to open the ground, when the whole veteran body of office took the +alarm. A violent outcry of all (except those who knew and felt the +mischief) was raised against any alteration. On one hand, his attempt +was a direct violation of treaties and public law; on the other, the Act +of Navigation and all the corps of trade-laws were drawn up in array +against it.</p> + +<p>The first step the noble lord took was, to have the opinion of his +excellent, learned, and ever-lamented friend, the late Mr. Yorke, then +Attorney-General, on the point of law. When he knew that formally and +officially which in substance he had known before, he immediately +dispatched orders to redress the grievance. But I will say it for the +then minister, he is of that constitution of mind, that I know he would +have issued, on the same critical occasion, the very same orders, if the +acts of trade had been, as they were not, directly against him, and +would have cheerfully submitted to the equity of Parliament for his +indemnity.</p> + +<p>On the conclusion of this business of the Spanish trade, the news of the +troubles on account of the Stamp Act arrived in England. It was not +until the end of October that these accounts were received. No sooner +had the sound of that mighty tempest reached us in England, than the +whole of the then opposition, instead of feeling humbled by the unhappy +issue of their measures, seemed to be infinitely <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" title="47" class="pagenum"></a>elated, and cried out, +that the ministry, from envy to the glory of their predecessors, were +prepared to repeal the Stamp Act. Near nine years after, the honorable +gentleman takes quite opposite ground, and now challenges me to put my +hand to my heart and say whether the ministry had resolved on the repeal +till a considerable time after the meeting of Parliament. Though I do +not very well know what the honorable gentleman wishes to infer from the +admission or from the denial of this fact on which he so earnestly +adjures me, I do put my hand on my heart and assure him that they did +<i>not</i> come to a resolution directly to repeal. They weighed this matter +as its difficulty and importance required. They considered maturely +among themselves. They consulted with all who could give advice or +information. It was not determined until a little before the meeting of +Parliament; but it was determined, and the main lines of their own plan +marked out, before that meeting. Two questions arose. (I hope I am not +going into a narrative troublesome to the House.)</p> + +<p>[A cry of "Go on, go on!"]</p> + +<p>The first of the two considerations was, whether the repeal should be +total, or whether only partial,—taking out everything burdensome and +productive, and reserving only an empty acknowledgment, such as a stamp +on cards or dice. The other question was, on what principle the act +should be repealed. On this head also two principles were started. One, +that the legislative rights of this country with regard to America were +not entire, but had certain restrictions and limitations. The other +principle was, that taxes of this kind were contrary to the fundamental +principles of commerce on which the colonies were founded, <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" title="48" class="pagenum"></a>and contrary +to every idea of political equity,—by which equity we are bound as much +as possible to extend the spirit and benefit of the British Constitution +to every part of the British dominions. The option, both of the measure +and of the principle of repeal, was made before the session; and I +wonder how any one can read the king's speech at the opening of that +session, without seeing in that speech both the repeal and the +Declaratory Act very sufficiently crayoned out. Those who cannot see +this can see nothing.</p> + +<p>Surely the honorable gentleman will not think that a great deal less +time than was then employed ought to have been spent in deliberation, +when he considers that the news of the troubles did not arrive till +towards the end of October. The Parliament sat to fill the vacancies on +the 14th day of December, and on business the 14th of the following +January.</p> + +<p>Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the <i>bon-ton</i> of the court then was, a +<i>modification</i>, would have satisfied a timid, unsystematic, +procrastinating ministry, as such a measure has since done such a +ministry. A modification is the constant resource of weak, undeciding +minds. To repeal by a denial of our right to tax in the preamble (and +this, too, did not want advisers) would have cut, in the heroic style, +the Gordian knot with a sword. Either measure would have cost no more +than a day's debate. But when the total repeal was adopted, and adopted +on principles of policy, of equity, and of commerce, this plan made it +necessary to enter into many and difficult measures. It became necessary +to open a very largo field of evidence commensurate to these extensive +views. But then this labor did knights' service. It opened the eyes of +several to the true state of the American affairs; it <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" title="49" class="pagenum"></a>enlarged their +ideas; it removed prejudices; and it conciliated the opinions and +affections of men. The noble lord who then took the lead in +administration, my honorable friend<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6" /><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor" +title="Mr. Dowdeswell.">[6]</a> under me, and a right honorable +gentleman<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7" /><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor" +title="General Conway.">[7]</a> (if he will not reject his share, and it was a large one, +of this business) exerted the most laudable industry in bringing before +you the fullest, most impartial, and least garbled body of evidence that +ever was produced to this House. I think the inquiry lasted in the +committee for six weeks; and at its conclusion, this House, by an +independent, noble, spirited, and unexpected majority, by a majority +that will redeem all the acts ever done by majorities in Parliament, in +the teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of state, in despite of all the +speculators and augurs of political events, in defiance of the whole +embattled legion of veteran pensioners and practised instruments of a +court, gave a total repeal to the Stamp Act, and (if it had been so +permitted) a lasting peace to this whole empire.</p> + +<p>I state, Sir, these particulars, because this act of spirit and +fortitude has lately been, in the circulation of the season, and in some +hazarded declamations in this House, attributed to timidity. If, Sir, +the conduct of ministry, in proposing the repeal, had arisen from +timidity with regard to themselves, it would have been greatly to be +condemned. Interested timidity disgraces as much in the cabinet as +personal timidity does in the field. But timidity with regard to the +well-being of our country is heroic virtue. The noble lord who then +conducted affairs, and his worthy colleagues, whilst they trembled at +the prospect of such distresses as you have since brought upon +<a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" title="50" class="pagenum"></a>yourselves, were not afraid steadily to look in the face that glaring +and dazzling influence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched. He +looked in the face one of the ablest, and, let me say, not the most +scrupulous oppositions, that perhaps ever was in this House; and +withstood it, unaided by even one of the usual supports of +administration. He did this, when he repealed the Stamp Act. He looked +in the face a person he had long respected and regarded, and whose aid +was then particularly wanting: I mean Lord Chatham. He did this when he +passed the Declaratory Act.</p> + +<p>It is now given out, for the usual purposes, by the usual emissaries, +that Lord Rockingham did not consent to the repeal of this act until he +was bullied into it by Lord Chatham; and the reporters have gone so far +as publicly to assert, in an hundred companies, that the honorable +gentleman under the gallery,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8" /><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor" +title="General Conway.">[8]</a> who proposed the repeal in the American +committee, had another set of resolutions in his pocket, directly the +reverse of those he moved. These artifices of a desperate cause are at +this time spread abroad, with incredible care, in every part of the +town, from the highest to the lowest companies; as if the industry of +the circulation were to make amends for the absurdity of the report.</p> + +<p>Sir, whether the noble lord is of a complexion to be bullied by Lord +Chatham, or by any man, I must submit to those who know him. I confess, +when I look back to that time, I consider him as placed in one of the +most trying situations in which, perhaps, any man ever stood. In the +House of Peers there were very few of the ministry, out of the noble +lord's <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" title="51" class="pagenum"></a>own particular connection, (except Lord Egmont, who acted, as +far as I could discern, an honorable and manly part,) that did not look +to some other future arrangement, which warped his politics. There were +in both Houses new and menacing appearances, that might very naturally +drive any other than a most resolute minister from his measure or from +his station. The household troops openly revolted. The allies of +ministry (those, I mean, who supported some of their measures, but +refused responsibility for any) endeavored to undermine their credit, +and to take ground that must be fatal to the success of the very cause +which they would be thought to countenance. The question of the repeal +was brought on by ministry in the committee of this House in the very +instant when it was known that more than one court negotiation was +carrying on with the heads of the opposition. Everything, upon every +side, was full of traps and mines. Earth below shook; heaven above +menaced; all the elements of ministerial safety were dissolved. It was +in the midst of this chaos of plots and counterplots, it was in the +midst of this complicated warfare against public opposition and private +treachery, that the firmness of that noble person was put to the proof. +He never stirred from his ground: no, not an inch. He remained fixed and +determined, in principle, in measure, and in conduct. He practised no +managements. He secured no retreat. He sought no apology.</p> + +<p>I will likewise do justice—I ought to do it—to the honorable gentleman +who led us in this House.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9" /><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor" +title="General Conway.">[9]</a> Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on +him, he acted his part with alacrity and resolution. We all felt +in<a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" title="52" class="pagenum"></a>spired by the example he gave us, down even to myself, the weakest in +that phalanx. I declare for one, I knew well enough (it could not be +concealed from anybody) the true state of things; but, in my life, I +never came with so much spirits into this House. It was a time for a +<i>man</i> to act in. We had powerful enemies; but we had faithful and +determined friends, and a glorious cause. We had a great battle to +fight; but we had the means of fighting: not as now, when our arms are +tied behind us. We did fight that day, and conquer.</p> + +<p>I remember, Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the situation of the +honorable gentleman<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10" /><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor" +title="General Conway.">[10]</a> who made the motion for the repeal: in that +crisis, when the whole trading interest of this empire, crammed into +your lobbies, with a trembling and anxious expectation, waited, almost +to a winter's return of light, their fate from your resolutions. When at +length you had determined in their favor, and your doors thrown open +showed them the figure of their deliverer in the well-earned triumph of +his important victory, from the whole of that grave multitude there +arose an involuntary burst of gratitude and transport. They jumped upon +him like children on a long absent father. They clung about him as +captives about their redeemer. All England, all America, joined in his +applause. Nor did he seem insensible to the best of all earthly rewards, +the love and admiration of his fellow-citizens. <i>Hope elevated and joy +brightened his crest</i>. I stood near him; and his face, to use the +expression of the Scripture of the first martyr, "his face was as if it +had been the face of an angel." I do not know how others feel; but if I +had stood in that sit<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" title="53" class="pagenum"></a>uation, I never would have exchanged it for all +that kings in their profusion could bestow. I did hope that that day's +danger and honor would have been a bond to hold us all together forever. +But, alas! that, with other pleasing visions, is long since vanished.</p> + +<p>Sir, this act of supreme magnanimity has been represented as if it had +been a measure of an administration that, having no scheme of their own, +took a middle line, pilfered a bit from one side and a bit from the +other. Sir, they took <i>no</i> middle lines. They differed fundamentally +from the schemes of both parties; but they preserved the objects of +both. They preserved the authority of Great Britain; they preserved the +equity of Great Britain. They made the Declaratory Act; they repealed +the Stamp Act. They did both <i>fully</i>: because the Declaratory Act was +<i>without qualification</i>; and the repeal of the Stamp Act <i>total</i>. This +they did in the situation I have described.</p> + +<p>Now, Sir, what will the adversary say to both these acts? If the +principle of the Declaratory Act was not good, the principle we are +contending for this day is monstrous. If the principle of the repeal was +not good, why are we not at war for a real, substantial, effective +revenue? If both were bad, why has this ministry incurred all the +inconveniences of both and of all schemes? why have they enacted, +repealed, enforced, yielded, and now attempt to enforce again?</p> + +<p>Sir, I think I may as well now as at any other time speak to a certain +matter of fact not wholly unrelated to the question under your +consideration. We, who would persuade you to revert to the ancient +<a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" title="54" class="pagenum"></a>policy of this kingdom, labor under the effect of this short current +phrase, which the court leaders have given out to all their corps, in +order to take away the credit of those who would prevent you from that +frantic war you are going to wage upon your colonies. Their cant is +this: "All the disturbances in America have been created by the repeal +of the Stamp Act." I suppress for a moment my indignation at the +falsehood, baseness, and absurdity of this most audacious assertion. +Instead of remarking on the motives and character of those who have +issued it for circulation, I will clearly lay before you the state of +America, antecedently to that repeal, after the repeal, and since the +renewal of the schemes of American taxation.</p> + +<p>It is said, that the disturbances, if there were any before the repeal, +were slight, and without difficulty or inconvenience might have been +suppressed. For an answer to this assertion I will send you to the great +author and patron of the Stamp Act, who, certainly meaning well to the +authority of this country, and fully apprised of the state of that, +made, before a repeal was so much as agitated in this House, the motion +which is on your journals, and which, to save the clerk the trouble of +turning to it, I will now read to you. It was for an amendment to the +address of the 17th of December, 1765.</p> + +<p>"To express our just resentment and indignation at the <i>outrageous +tumults and insurrections</i> which have been excited and carried on in +North America, and at the resistance given, by <i>open</i> and <i>rebellious</i> +force, to the execution of the laws in that part of his Majesty's +dominions; to assure his Majesty, that his faithful Commons, animated +with the warmest duty and at<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" title="55" class="pagenum"></a>tachment to his royal person and +government, ... will firmly and effectually support his Majesty in all +such measures as shall be necessary for preserving and securing the +legal dependence of the colonies upon this their mother country," &c., +&c.</p> + +<p>Here was certainly a disturbance preceding the repeal,—such a +disturbance as Mr. Grenville thought necessary to qualify by the name of +an <i>insurrection</i>, and the epithet of a <i>rebellious</i> force: terms much +stronger than any by which those who then supported his motion have ever +since thought proper to distinguish the subsequent disturbances in +America. They were disturbances which seemed to him and his friends to +justify as strong a promise of support as hath been usual to give in the +beginning of a war with the most powerful and declared enemies. When the +accounts of the American governors came before the House, they appeared +stronger even than the warmth of public imagination had painted them: so +much stronger, that the papers on your table bear me out in saying that +all the late disturbances, which have been at one time the minister's +motives for the repeal of five out of six of the new court taxes, and +are now his pretences for refusing to repeal that sixth, did not +amount—why do I compare them?—no, not to a tenth part of the tumults +and violence which prevailed long before the repeal of that act.</p> + +<p>Ministry cannot refuse the authority of the commander-in-chief, General +Gage, who, in his letter of the 4th of November, from New York, thus +represents the state of things:—</p> + +<p>"It is difficult to say, from the <i>highest to the lowest</i>, who has not +been <i>accessory</i> to this <i>insurrection</i>, either <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" title="56" class="pagenum"></a>by writing, or <i>mutual +agreements</i> to oppose the act, by what they are pleased to term all +legal opposition to it. Nothing effectual has been proposed, either to +prevent or quell the tumult. <i>The rest of the provinces are in the same +situation</i>, as to a positive refusal to take the stamps, and threatening +those who shall take them <i>to plunder and murder them</i>; and this affair +stands <i>in all the provinces</i>, that, unless the act from its own nature +enforce itself, nothing but a <i>very</i> considerable military force can do +it."</p> + +<p>It is remarkable, Sir, that the persons who formerly trumpeted forth the +most loudly the violent resolutions of assemblies, the universal +insurrections, the seizing and burning the stamped papers, the forcing +stamp officers to resign their commissions under the gallows, the +rifling and pulling down of the houses of magistrates, and the expulsion +from their country of all who dared to write or speak a single word in +defence of the powers of Parliament,—these very trumpeters are now the +men that represent the whole as a mere trifle, and choose to date all +the disturbances from the repeal of the Stamp Act, which put an end to +them. Hear your officers abroad, and let them refute this shameless +falsehood, who, in all their correspondence, state the disturbances as +owing to their true causes, the discontent of the people from the taxes. +You have this evidence in your own archives; and it will give you +complete satisfaction, if you are not so far lost to all Parliamentary +ideas of information as rather to credit the lie of the day than the +records of your own House.</p> + +<p>Sir, this vermin of court reporters, when they are forced into day upon +one point, are sure to burrow in another: but they shall have no refuge; +I will make <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" title="57" class="pagenum"></a>them bolt out of all their holes. Conscious that they must +be baffled, when they attribute a precedent disturbance to a subsequent +measure, they take other ground, almost as absurd, but very common in +modern practice, and very wicked; which is, to attribute the ill effect +of ill-judged conduct to the arguments which had been used to dissuade +us from it. They say, that the opposition made in Parliament to the +Stamp Act, at the time of its passing, encouraged the Americans to their +resistance. This has even formally appeared in print in a regular volume +from an advocate of that faction,—a Dr. Tucker. This Dr. Tucker is +already a dean, and his earnest labors in this vineyard will, I suppose, +raise him to a bishopric. But this assertion, too, just like the rest, +is false. In all the papers which have loaded your table, in all the +vast crowd of verbal witnesses that appeared at your bar, witnesses +which were indiscriminately produced from both sides of the House, not +the least hint of such a cause of disturbance has ever appeared. As to +the fact of a strenuous opposition to the Stamp Act, I sat as a stranger +in your gallery when the act was under consideration. Far from anything +inflammatory, I never heard a more languid debate in this House. No more +than two or three gentlemen, as I remember, spoke against the act, and +that with great reserve and remarkable temper. There was but one +division in the whole progress of the bill; and the minority did not +reach to more than 39 or 40. In the House of Lords I do not recollect +that there was any debate or division at all. I am sure there was no +protest. In fact, the affair passed with so very, very little noise, +that in town they scarcely knew the nature of what you were doing. The +opposition to <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" title="58" class="pagenum"></a>the bill in England never could have done this mischief, +because there scarcely ever was less of opposition to a bill of +consequence.</p> + +<p>Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods have, with their usual +industry, circulated another lie, of the same nature with the former. It +is this: that the disturbances arose from the account which had been +received in America of the change in the ministry. No longer awed, it +seems, with the spirit of the former rulers, they thought themselves a +match for what our calumniators choose to qualify by the name of so +feeble a ministry as succeeded. Feeble in one sense these men certainly +may be called: for, with all their efforts, and they have made many, +they have not been able to resist the distempered vigor and insane +alacrity with which you are rushing to your ruin. But it does so happen, +that the falsity of this circulation is (like the rest) demonstrated by +indisputable dates and records.</p> + +<p>So little was the change known in America, that the letters of your +governors, giving an account of these disturbances long after they had +arrived at their highest pitch, were all directed to the <i>old ministry</i>, +and particularly to the <i>Earl of Halifax</i>, the Secretary of State +corresponding with the colonies, without once in the smallest degree +intimating the slightest suspicion of any ministerial revolution +whatsoever. The ministry was not changed in England until the 10th day +of July, 1765. On the 14th of the preceding June, Governor Fauquier, +from Virginia, writes thus,—and writes thus to the Earl of +Halifax:—"Government is set at <i>defiance</i>, not having strength enough +in her hands to enforce obedience to the laws of the community.—The +private distress, which every <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" title="59" class="pagenum"></a>man feels, increases the <i>general +dissatisfaction</i> at the duties laid by the <i>Stamp Act</i>, which breaks out +and shows itself upon every trifling occasion." The general +dissatisfaction had produced some time before, that is, on the 29th of +May, several strong public resolves against the Stamp Act; and those +resolves are assigned by Governor Bernard as the cause of the +<i>insurrections</i> in Massachusetts Bay, in his letter of the 15th of +August, still addressed to the Earl of Halifax; and he continued to +address such accounts to that minister quite to the 7th of September of +the same year. Similar accounts, and of as late a date, were sent from +other governors, and all directed to Lord Halifax. Not one of these +letters indicates the slightest idea of a change, either known or even +apprehended.</p> + +<p>Thus are blown away the insect race of courtly falsehoods! Thus perish +the miserable inventions of the wretched runners for a wretched cause, +which they have fly-blown into every weak and rotten part of the +country, in vain hopes, that, when their maggots had taken wing, their +importunate buzzing might sound something like the public voice!</p> + +<p>Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently with the state of America before +the repeal. Now I turn to the honorable gentleman who so stoutly +challenges us to tell whether, after the repeal, the provinces were +quiet. This is coming home to the point. Here I meet him directly, and +answer most readily, <i>They were quiet</i>. And I, in my turn, challenge him +to prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what numbers, and with +what violence, the other laws of trade, as gentlemen assert, were +violated in consequence of your concession, or that even your other +revenue laws were attacked. But I quit the vantage-<a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" title="60" class="pagenum"></a>ground on which I +stand, and where I might leave the burden of the proof upon him: I walk +down upon the open plain, and undertake to show that they were not only +quiet, but showed many unequivocal marks of acknowledgment and +gratitude. And to give him every advantage, I select the obnoxious +colony of Massachusetts Bay, which at this time (but without hearing +her) is so heavily a culprit before Parliament: I will select their +proceedings even under circumstances of no small irritation. For, a +little imprudently, I must say, Governor Bernard mixed in the +administration of the lenitive of the repeal no small acrimony arising +from matters of a separate nature. Yet see, Sir, the effect of that +lenitive, though mixed with these bitter ingredients,—and how this +rugged people can express themselves on a measure of concession.</p> + +<p>"If it is not now in our power," (say they, in their address to Governor +Bernard,) "in so full a manner as will be expected, to show our +respectful gratitude to the mother country, or to make a dutiful, +affectionate return to the indulgence of the King and Parliament, it +shall be no fault of ours; for this we intend, and hope shall be able +fully to effect."</p> + +<p>Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, managed, and set in +action! Other effects than those which we have since felt would have +resulted from it. On the requisition for compensation to those who had +suffered from the violence of the populace, in the same address they +say,—"The recommendation enjoined by Mr. Secretary Conway's letter, and +in consequence thereof made to us, we shall embrace the first convenient +opportunity to consider and act upon." They did consider; they did act +upon it. They obeyed <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" title="61" class="pagenum"></a>the requisition. I know the mode has been chicaned +upon; but it was substantially obeyed, and much better obeyed than I +fear the Parliamentary requisition of this session will be, though +enforced by all your rigor and backed with all your power. In a word, +the damages of popular fury were compensated by legislative gravity. +Almost every other part of America in various ways demonstrated their +gratitude. I am bold to say, that so sudden a calm recovered after so +violent a storm is without parallel in history. To say that no other +disturbance should happen from any other cause is folly. But as far as +appearances went, by the judicious sacrifice of one law you procured an +acquiescence in all that remained. After this experience, nobody shall +persuade me, when an whole people are concerned, that acts of lenity are +not means of conciliation.</p> + +<p>I hope the honorable gentleman has received a fair and full answer to +his question.</p> + +<p>I have done with the third period of your policy,—that of your repeal, +and the return of your ancient system, and your ancient tranquillity and +concord. Sir, this period was not as long as it was happy. Another scene +was opened, and other actors appeared on the stage. The state, in the +condition I have described it, was delivered into the hands of Lord +Chatham, a great and celebrated name,—a name that keeps the name of +this country respectable in every other on the globe. It may be truly +called</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">Clarum et venerabile nomen<br /></span> +<span>Gentibus, et multum nostræ quod proderat urbi.<br /><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his superior +eloquence, his splendid quali<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" title="62" class="pagenum"></a>ties, his eminent services, the vast space +he fills in the eye of mankind, and, more than all the rest, his fall +from power, which, like death, canonizes and sanctifies a great +character, will not suffer me to censure any part of his conduct. I am +afraid to flatter him; I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let +those who have betrayed him by their adulation insult him with their +malevolence. But what I do not presume to censure I may have leave to +lament. For a wise man, he seemed to me at that time to be governed too +much by general maxims. I speak with the freedom of history, and I hope +without offence. One or two of these maxims, flowing from an opinion not +the most indulgent to our unhappy species, and surely a little too +general, led him into measures that were greatly mischievous to himself, +and for that reason, among others, perhaps fatal to his +country,—measures, the effects of which, I am afraid, are forever +incurable. He made an administration so checkered and speckled, he put +together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically +dovetailed, a cabinet so variously inlaid, such a piece of diversified +mosaic, such a tessellated pavement without cement,—here a bit of black +stone and there a bit of white, patriots and courtiers, king's friends +and republicans, Whigs and Tories, treacherous friends and open +enemies,—that it was, indeed, a very curious show, but utterly unsafe +to touch and unsure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had assorted at +the same boards stared at each other, and were obliged to ask,—"Sir, +your name?"—"Sir, you have the advantage of me."—"Mr. Such-a-one."—"I +beg a thousand pardons."—I venture to say, it did so happen that +persons had a single office divided between them, who had <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" title="63" class="pagenum"></a>never spoke +to each other in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not +how, pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle-bed.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11" /><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor" +title="Supposed to allude to the Right Honorable Lord North, and George Cooke, Esq., who were made joint paymasters in the summer of 1766, on the removal +of the Rockingham administration.">[11]</a></p> + +<p>Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, having put so much the larger +part of his enemies and opposers into power, the confusion was such that +his own principles could not possibly have any effect or influence in +the conduct of affairs. If over he fell into a fit of the gout, or if +any other cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the +contrary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had +not an inch of ground to stand upon. When he had accomplished his scheme +of administration, he was no longer a minister.</p> + +<p>When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole system was on a wide +sea without chart or compass. The gentlemen, his particular friends, +who, with the names of various departments of ministry, were admitted to +seem as if they acted a part under him, with a modesty that becomes all +men, and with a confidence in him which was justified even in its +extravagance by his superior abilities, had never in any instance +presumed upon any opinion of their own. Deprived of his guiding +influence, they were whirled about, the sport of every gust, and easily +driven into any port; and as those who joined with them in manning the +vessel were the most directly opposite to his opinions, measures, and +character, and far the most artful and most powerful of the set, they +easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and +derelict minds of his friends, and instantly they <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" title="64" class="pagenum"></a>turned the vessel +wholly out of the course of his policy. As if it were to insult as well +as to betray him, even long before the close of the first session of his +administration, when everything was publicly transacted, and with great +parade, in his name, they made an act declaring it highly just and +expedient to raise a revenue in America. For even then, Sir, even before +this splendid orb was entirely set, and while the western horizon was in +a blaze with his descending glory, on the opposite quarter of the +heavens arose another luminary, and for his hour became lord of the +ascendant.</p> + +<p>This light, too, is passed and set forever. You understand, to be sure, +that I speak of Charles Townshend, officially the reproducer of this +fatal scheme, whom I cannot even now remember without some degree of +sensibility. In truth, Sir, he was the delight and ornament of this +House, and the charm of every private society which he honored with his +presence. Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any country, +a man of a more pointed and finished wit, and (where his passions were +not concerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment. +If he had not so great a stock as some have had, who flourished +formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he knew, better by far than +any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together within a short +time all that was necessary to establish, to illustrate, and to decorate +that side of the question he supported. He stated his matter skilfully +and powerfully. He particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation +and display of his subject. His style of argument was neither trite and +vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse. He hit the House just between wind and +water. And <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" title="65" class="pagenum"></a>not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any matter in +question, he was never more tedious or more earnest than the +preconceived opinions and present temper of his hearers required, to +whom he was always in perfect unison. He conformed exactly to the temper +of the House; and he seemed to guide, because he was always sure to +follow it.</p> + +<p>I beg pardon, Sir, if, when I speak of this and of other great men, I +appear to digress in saying something of their characters. In this +eventful history of the revolutions of America, the characters of such +men are of much importance. Great men are the guideposts and landmarks +in the state. The credit of such men at court or in the nation is the +sole cause of all the public measures. It would be an invidious thing +(most foreign, I trust, to what you think my disposition) to remark the +errors into which the authority of great names has brought the nation, +without doing justice at the same time to the great qualities whence +that authority arose. The subject is instructive to those who wish to +form themselves on whatever of excellence has gone before them. There +are many young members in the House (such of late has been the rapid +succession of public men) who never saw that prodigy, Charles Townshend, +nor of course know what a ferment he was able to excite in everything by +the violent ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings. For failings +he had undoubtedly,—many of us remember them; we are this day +considering the effect of them. But he had no failings which were not +owing to a noble cause,—to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate +passion for fame: a passion which is the instinct of all great souls. He +worshipped that goddess, wheresoever she appeared; <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" title="66" class="pagenum"></a>but he paid his +particular devotions to her in her favorite habitation, in her chosen +temple, the House of Commons. Besides the characters of the individuals +that compose our body, it is impossible, Mr. Speaker, not to observe +that this House has a collective character of its own. That character, +too, however imperfect, is not unamiable. Like all great public +collections of men, you possess a marked love of virtue and an +abhorrence of vice. But among vices there is none which the House abhors +in the same degree with <i>obstinacy</i>. Obstinacy, Sir, is certainly a +great vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it is +frequently the cause of great mischief. It happens, however, very +unfortunately, that almost the whole line of the great and masculine +virtues, constancy, gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and +firmness, are closely allied to this disagreeable quality, of which you +have so just an abhorrence; and, in their excess, all these virtues very +easily fall into it. He who paid such a punctilious attention to all +your feelings certainly took care not to shock them by that vice which +is the most disgustful to you.</p> + +<p>That fear of displeasing those who ought most to be pleased betrayed him +sometimes into the other extreme. He had voted, and, in the year 1765, +had been an advocate for the Stamp Act. Things and the disposition of +men's minds were changed. In short, the Stamp Act began to be no +favorite in this House. He therefore attended at the private meeting in +which the resolutions moved by a right honorable gentleman were settled: +resolutions leading to the repeal. The next day he voted for that +repeal; and he would have spoken for it, too, if an illness (not, as was +then given out, a political, but, to my <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" title="67" class="pagenum"></a>knowledge, a very real illness) +had not prevented it.</p> + +<p>The very next session, as the fashion of this world passeth away, the +repeal began to be in as bad an odor in this House as the Stamp Act had +been in the session before. To conform to the temper which began to +prevail, and to prevail mostly amongst those most in power, he declared, +very early in the winter, that a revenue must be had out of America. +Instantly he was tied down to his engagements by some, who had no +objection to such experiments, when made at the cost of persons for whom +they had no particular regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him +onward. They always talked as if the king stood in a sort of humiliated +state, until something of the kind should be done.</p> + +<p>Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, found +himself in great straits. To please universally was the object of his +life; but to tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is +not given to men. However, he attempted it. To render the tax palatable +to the partisans of American revenue, he made a preamble stating the +necessity of such a revenue. To close with the American distinction, +this revenue was <i>external</i> or port-duty; but again, to soften it to the +other party, it was a duty of <i>supply</i>. To gratify the <i>colonists</i>, it +was laid on British manufactures; to satisfy the <i>merchants of Britain</i>, +the duty was trivial, and (except that on tea, which touched only the +devoted East India Company) on none of the grand objects of commerce. To +counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from a +shilling to three-pence; but to secure the favor of those who would tax +America, the <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" title="68" class="pagenum"></a>scene of collection was changed, and, with the rest, it +was levied in the colonies. What need I say more? This fine-spun scheme +had the usual fate of all exquisite policy. But the original plan of the +duties, and the mode of executing that plan, both arose singly and +solely from a love of our applause. He was truly the child of the House. +He never thought, did, or said anything, but with a view to you. He +every day adapted himself to your disposition, and adjusted himself +before it as at a looking-glass.</p> + +<p>He had observed (indeed, it could not escape him) that several persons, +infinitely his inferiors in all respects, had formerly rendered +themselves considerable in this House by one method alone. They were a +race of men (I hope in God the species is extinct) who, when they rose +in their place, no man living could divine, from any known adherence to +parties, to opinions, or to principles, from any order or system in +their politics, or from any sequel or connection in their ideas, what +part they were going to take in any debate. It is astonishing how much +this uncertainty, especially at critical times, called the attention of +all parties on such men. All eyes were fixed on them, all ears open to +hear them; each party gaped, and looked alternately for their vote, +almost to the end of their speeches. While the House hung in this +uncertainty, now the <i>hear-hims</i> rose from this side, now they +rebellowed from the other; and that party to whom they fell at length +from their tremulous and dancing balance always received them in a +tempest of applause. The fortune of such men was a temptation too great +to be resisted by one to whom a single whiff of incense withheld gave +much greater pain than he received delight in the clouds of it <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" title="69" class="pagenum"></a>which +daily rose about him from the prodigal superstition of innumerable +admirers. He was a candidate for contradictory honors; and his great aim +was, to make those agree in admiration of him who never agreed in +anything else.</p> + +<p>Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject of this day's debate: from +a disposition which, after making an American revenue to please one, +repealed it to please others, and again revived it in hopes of pleasing +a third, and of catching something in the ideas of all.</p> + +<p>This revenue act of 1767 formed the fourth period of American policy. +How we have fared since then: what woful variety of schemes have been +adopted; what enforcing, and what repealing; what bullying, and what +submitting; what doing, and undoing; what straining, and what relaxing; +what assemblies dissolved for not obeying, and called again without +obedience; what troops sent out to quell resistance, and, on meeting +that resistance, recalled; what shiftings, and changes, and jumblings of +all kinds of men at home, which left no possibility of order, +consistency, vigor, or even so much as a decent unity of color, in +anyone public measure—It is a tedious, irksome task. My duty may call +me to open it out some other time; on a former occasion<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12" /><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor" +title="Resolutions in May, 1770.">[12]</a> I tried your +temper on a part of it; for the present I shall forbear.</p> + +<p>After all these changes and agitations, your immediate situation upon +the question on your paper is at length brought to this. You have an act +of Parliament stating that "it is <i>expedient</i> to raise a revenue in +America." By a partial repeal you annihilated the greatest part of that +revenue which this preamble <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" title="70" class="pagenum"></a>declares to be so expedient. You have +substituted no other in the place of it. A Secretary of State has +disclaimed, in the king's name, all thoughts of such a substitution in +future. The principle of this disclaimer goes to what has been left, as +well as what has been repealed. The tax which lingers after its +companions (under a preamble declaring an American revenue expedient, +and for the sole purpose of supporting the theory of that preamble) +militates with the assurance authentically conveyed to the colonies, and +is an exhaustless source of jealousy and animosity. On this state, which +I take to be a fair one,—not being able to discern any grounds of +honor, advantage, peace, or power, for adhering, either to the act or to +the preamble, I shall vote for the question which leads to the repeal of +both.</p> + +<p>If you do not fall in with this motion, then secure something to fight +for, consistent in theory and valuable in practice. If you must employ +your strength, employ it to uphold you in some honorable right or some +profitable wrong. If you are apprehensive that the concession +recommended to you, though proper, should be a means of drawing on you +further, but unreasonable claims,—why, then employ your force in +supporting that reasonable concession against those unreasonable +demands. You will employ it with more grace, with better effect, and +with great probable concurrence of all the quiet and rational people in +the provinces, who are now united with and hurried away by the +violent,—having, indeed, different dispositions, but a common interest. +If you apprehend that on a concession you shall be pushed by +metaphysical process to the extreme lines, and argued out of your whole +authority, my advice is this:<a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" title="71" class="pagenum"></a> when you have recovered your old, your +strong, your tenable position, then face about,—stop short,—do nothing +more,—reason not at all,—oppose the ancient policy and practice of the +empire as a rampart against the speculations of innovators on both sides +of the question,—and you will stand on great, manly, and sure ground. +On this solid basis fix your machines, and they will draw worlds towards +you.</p> + +<p>Tour ministers, in their own and his Majesty's name, have already +adopted the American distinction of internal and external duties. It is +a distinction, whatever merit it may have, that was originally moved by +the Americans themselves; and I think they will acquiesce in it, if they +are not pushed with too much logic and too little sense, in all the +consequences: that is, if external taxation be understood, as they and +you understand it, when you please, to be not a distinction of +geography, but of policy; that it is a power for regulating trade, and +not for supporting establishments. The distinction, which is as nothing +with regard to right, is of most weighty consideration in practice. +Recover your old ground, and your old tranquillity; try it; I am +persuaded the Americans will compromise with you. When confidence is +once restored, the odious and suspicious <i>summum jus</i> will perish of +course. The spirit of practicability, of moderation, and mutual +convenience will never call in geometrical exactness as the arbitrator +of an amicable settlement. Consult and follow your experience. Let not +the long story with which I have exercised your patience prove fruitless +to your interests.</p> + +<p>For my part, I should choose (if I could have my wish) that the +proposition of the honorable gentle<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" title="72" class="pagenum"></a>man<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13" /><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor" +title="Mr. Fuller.">[13]</a> for the repeal could go to +America without the attendance of the penal bills. Alone I could almost +answer for its success. I cannot be certain of its reception in the bad +company it may keep. In such heterogeneous assortments, the most +innocent person will lose the effect of his innocency. Though you should +send out this angel of peace, yet you are sending out a destroying angel +too; and what would be the effect of the conflict of these two adverse +spirits, or which would predominate in the end, is what I dare not say: +whether the lenient measures would cause American passion to subside, or +the severe would increase its fury,—all this is in the hand of +Providence. Yet now, even now, I should confide in the prevailing virtue +and efficacious operation of lenity, though working in darkness and in +chaos, in the midst of all this unnatural and turbid combination: I +should hope it might produce order and beauty in the end.</p> + +<p>Let us, Sir, embrace some system or other before we end this session. Do +you mean to tax America, and to draw a productive revenue from thence? +If you do, speak out: name, fix, ascertain this revenue; settle its +quantity; define its objects; provide for its collection; and then +fight, when you have something to fight for. If you murder, rob; if you +kill, take possession; and do not appear in the character of madmen as +well as assassins, violent, vindictive, bloody, and tyrannical, without +an object. But may better counsels guide you!</p> + +<p>Again, and again, revert to your old principles,—seek peace and ensue +it,—leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself. I +am not here <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" title="73" class="pagenum"></a>going into the distinctions of rights, nor attempting to +mark their boundaries. I do not enter into these metaphysical +distinctions; I hate the very sound of them. Leave the Americans as they +anciently stood, and these distinctions, born of our unhappy contest, +will die along with it. They and we, and their and our ancestors, have +been happy under that system. Let the memory of all actions in +contradiction to that good old mode, on both sides, be extinguished +forever. Be content to bind America by laws of trade: you have always +done it. Let this be your reason for binding their trade. Do not burden +them by taxes: you were not used to do so from the beginning. Let this +be your reason for not taxing. These are the arguments of states and +kingdoms. Leave the rest to the schools; for there only they may be +discussed with safety. But if, intemperately, unwisely, fatally, you +sophisticate and poison the very source of government, by urging subtle +deductions, and consequences odious to those you govern, from the +unlimited and illimitable nature of supreme sovereignty, you will teach +them by these means to call that sovereignty itself in question. When +you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If that +sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they +take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be +argued into slavery. Sir, let the gentlemen on the other side call forth +all their ability; let the best of them get up and tell me what one +character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery +they are free from, if they are bound in their property and industry by +all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, and at the same time are +made pack-horses of <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" title="74" class="pagenum"></a>every tax you choose to impose, without the least +share in granting them. When they bear the burdens of unlimited +monopoly, will you bring them to bear the burdens of unlimited revenue +too? The Englishman in America will feel that this is slavery: that it +is <i>legal</i> slavery will be no compensation either to his feelings or his +understanding.</p> + +<p>A noble lord,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14" /><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor" +title="Lord Carmarthen.">[14]</a> who spoke some time ago, is full of the fire of +ingenuous youth; and when he has modelled the ideas of a lively +imagination by further experience, he will be an ornament to his country +in either House. He has said that the Americans are our children, and +how can they revolt against their parent? He says, that, if they are not +free in their present state, England is not free; because Manchester, +and other considerable places, are not represented. So, then, because +some towns in England are not represented, America is to have no +representative at all. They are "our children"; but when children ask +for bread, we are not to give a stone. Is it because the natural +resistance of things, and the various mutations of time, hinders our +government, or any scheme of government, from being any more than a sort +of approximation to the right, is it therefore that the colonies are to +recede from it infinitely? When this child of ours wishes to assimilate +to its parent, and to reflect with a true filial resemblance the +beauteous countenance of British liberty, are we to turn to them the +shameful parts of our constitution? are we to give them our weakness for +their strength, our opprobrium for their glory, and the slough of +slavery, which we are not able to work off, to serve them for their +freedom?<a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" title="75" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>If this be the case, ask yourselves this question: Will they be content +in such a state of slavery? If not, look to the consequences. Reflect +how you are to govern a people who think they ought to be free, and +think they are not. Your scheme yields no revenue; it yields nothing but +discontent, disorder, disobedience: and such is the state of America, +that, after wading up to your eyes in blood, you could only end just +where you begun,—that is, to tax where no revenue is to be found, to +---- My voice fails me: my inclination, indeed, carries me no further; +all is confusion beyond it.</p> + +<p>Well, Sir, I have recovered a little, and before I sit down I must say +something to another point with which gentlemen urge us. What is to +become of the Declaratory Act, asserting the entireness of British +legislative authority, if we abandon the practice of taxation?</p> + +<p>For my part, I look upon the rights stated in that act exactly in the +manner in which I viewed them on its very first proposition, and which I +have often taken the liberty, with great humility, to lay before you. I +look, I say, on the imperial rights of Great Britain, and the privileges +which the colonists ought to enjoy under these rights, to be just the +most reconcilable things in the world. The Parliament of Great Britain +sits at the head of her extensive empire in two capacities. One as the +local legislature of this island, providing for all things at home, +immediately, and by no other instrument than the executive power. The +other, and I think her nobler capacity, is what I call her <i>imperial +character</i>; in which, as from the throne of heaven, she superintends all +the several inferior legislatures, and guides and controls them all +<a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" title="76" class="pagenum"></a>without annihilating any. As all these provincial legislatures are only +coördinate to each other, they ought all to be subordinate to her; else +they can neither preserve mutual peace, nor hope for mutual justice, nor +effectually afford mutual assistance. It is necessary to coerce the +negligent, to restrain the violent, and to aid the weak and deficient, +by the overruling plenitude of her power. She is never to intrude into +the place of the others, whilst they are equal to the common ends of +their institution. But in order to enable Parliament to answer all these +ends of provident and beneficent superintendence, her powers must be +boundless. The gentlemen who think the powers of Parliament limited may +please themselves to talk of requisitions. But suppose the requisitions +are not obeyed? What! shall there be no reserved power in the empire, to +supply a deficiency which may weaken, divide, and dissipate the whole? +We are engaged in war,—the Secretary of State calls upon the colonies +to contribute,—some would do it, I think most would cheerfully furnish +whatever is demanded,—one or two, suppose, hang back, and, easing +themselves, let the stress of the draft lie on the others,—surely it is +proper that some authority might legally say, "Tax yourselves for the +common Supply, or Parliament will do it for you." This backwardness was, +as I am told, actually the case of Pennsylvania for some short time +towards the beginning of the last war, owing to some internal +dissensions in that colony. But whether the fact were so or otherwise, +the case is equally to be provided for by a competent sovereign power. +But then this ought to be no ordinary power, nor ever used in the first +instance. This is what I meant, when I have <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" title="77" class="pagenum"></a>said, at various times, +that I consider the power of taxing in Parliament as an instrument of +empire, and not as a means of supply.</p> + +<p>Such, Sir, is my idea of the Constitution of the British Empire, as +distinguished from the Constitution of Britain; and on these grounds I +think subordination and liberty may be sufficiently reconciled through +the whole,—whether to serve a refining speculatist or a factious +demagogue I know not, but enough surely for the ease and happiness of +man.</p> + +<p>Sir, whilst we hold this happy course, we drew more from the colonies +than all the impotent violence of despotism ever could extort from them. +We did this abundantly in the last war; it has never been once denied; +and what reason have we to imagine that the colonies would not have +proceeded in supplying government as liberally, if you had not stepped +in and hindered them from contributing, by interrupting the channel in +which their liberality flowed with so strong a course,—by attempting to +take, instead of being satisfied to receive? Sir William Temple says, +that Holland has loaded itself with ten times the impositions which it +revolted from Spain rather than submit to. He says true. Tyranny is a +poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate nor how to extract.</p> + +<p>I charge, therefore, to this new and unfortunate system the loss not +only of peace, of union, and of commerce, but even of revenue, which its +friends are contending for. It is morally certain that we have lost at +least a million of free grants since the peace. I think we have lost a +great deal more; and that those who look for a revenue from the +provinces never could have pursued, even in that light, a course more +directly repugnant to their purposes.<a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" title="78" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Now, Sir, I trust I have shown, first on that narrow ground which the +honorable gentleman measured, that you are like to lose nothing by +complying with the motion, except what you have lost already. I have +shown afterwards, that in time of peace you flourished in commerce, and, +when war required it, had sufficient aid from the colonies, while you +pursued your ancient policy; that you threw everything into confusion, +when you made the Stamp Act; and that you restored everything to peace +and order, when you repealed it. I have shown that the revival of the +system of taxation has produced the very worst effects; and that the +partial repeal has produced, not partial good, but universal evil. Let +these considerations, founded on facts, not one of which can be denied, +bring us back to our reason by the road of our experience.</p> + +<p>I cannot, as I have said, answer for mixed measures: but surely this +mixture of lenity would give the whole a better chance of success. When +you once regain confidence, the way will be clear before you. Then you +may enforce the Act of Navigation, when it ought to be enforced. You +will yourselves open it, where it ought still further to be opened. +Proceed in what you do, whatever you do, from policy, and not from +rancor. Let us act like men, let us act like statesmen. Let us hold some +sort of consistent conduct. It is agreed that a revenue is not to be had +in America. If we lose the profit, let us get rid of the odium.</p> + +<p>On this business of America, I confess I am serious, even to sadness. I +have had but one opinion concerning it, since I sat, and before I sat in +Parliament. The noble lord<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15" /><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor" +title="Lord North.">[15]</a> will, as usual, probably, <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" title="79" class="pagenum"></a>attribute the +part taken by me and my friends in this business to a desire of getting +his places. Let him enjoy this happy and original idea. If I deprived +him of it, I should take away most of his wit, and all his argument. But +I had rather bear the brunt of all his wit, and indeed blows much +heavier, than stand answerable to God for embracing a system that tends +to the destruction of some of the very best and fairest of His works. +But I know the map of England as well as the noble lord, or as any other +person; and I know that the way I take is not the road to preferment. My +excellent and honorable friend under me on the floor<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16" /><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor" +title="Mr. Dowdeswell">[16]</a> has trod that +road with great toil for upwards of twenty years together. He is not yet +arrived at the noble lord's destination. However, the tracks of my +worthy friend are those I have ever wished to follow; because I know +they lead to honor. Long may we tread the same road together, whoever +may accompany us, or whoever may laugh at us on our journey! I honestly +and solemnly declare, I have in all seasons adhered to the system of +1766 for no other reason than, that I think it laid deep in your truest +interests,—and that, by limiting the exercise, it fixes on the firmest +foundations a real, consistent, well-grounded authority in Parliament. +Until you come back to that system, there will be no peace for England.<a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" title="80" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" title="81" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Esq., lately appointed one of the +Lords of the Treasury.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Lord North, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Lord Hillsborough's Circular Letter to the Governors of the +Colonies, concerning the repeal of some of the duties laid in the Act of +1767.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A material point is omitted by Mr. Burke in this speech, +viz. <i>the manner in which the continent received this royal assurance</i>. +The assembly of Virginia, in their address in answer to Lord Botetourt's +speech, express themselves thus:—"We will not suffer our present hopes, +arising from the pleasing prospect your Lordship hath so kindly opened +and displayed to us, to be lashed by the bitter reflection that any +<i>future</i> administration will entertain a wish to depart from that <i>plan</i> +which affords the surest and most permanent foundation of public +tranquillity and happiness. No, my Lord, we are sure <i>our most gracious +sovereign</i>, under whatever changes may happen in his confidential +servants, will remain immutable in the ways of truth and justice, and +that he is <i>incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects</i>; and we esteem +your Lordship's information not only as warranted, but even sanctified +<i>by the royal word</i>."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5" /><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Lord North.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6" /><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Mr. Dowdeswell.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7" /><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> General Conway.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8" /><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> General Conway.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9" /><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> General Conway.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10" /><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> General Conway.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11" /><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Supposed to allude to the Right Honorable Lord North, and +George Cooke, Esq., who were made joint paymasters in the summer of +1766, on the removal of the Rockingham administration.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12" /><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Resolutions in May, 1770.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13" /><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Mr. Fuller.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14" /><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Lord Carmarthen.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15" /><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Lord North.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16" /><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Mr. Dowdeswell</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SPEECHES" id="SPEECHES" />SPEECHES<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">AT</span><br /> +<br /> +HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL,<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">AND AT THE</span><br /> +<br /> +CONCLUSION OF THE POLL.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">1774</span></h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="ADVERTISEMENT" id="ADVERTISEMENT" /> +<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" title="82" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" title="83" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<h2>EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.</h2> + +<p>We believe there is no need of an apology to the public for offering to +them any genuine speeches of Mr. Burke: the two contained in this +publication undoubtedly are so. The general approbation they met with +(as we hear) from all parties at Bristol persuades us that a good +edition of them will not be unacceptable in London; which we own to be +the inducement, and we hope is a justification, of our offering it.</p> + +<p>We do not presume to descant on the merit of these speeches; but as it +is no less new than honorable to find a popular candidate, at a popular +election, daring to avow his dissent to certain points that have been +considered as very popular objects, and maintaining himself on the manly +confidence of his own opinion, so we must say that it does great credit +to the people of England, as it proves to the world, that, to insure +their confidence, it is not necessary to flatter them, or to affect a +subserviency to their passions or their prejudices.</p> + +<p>It may be necessary to promise, that at the opening of the poll the +candidates were Lord Clare, Mr. Brickdale, the two last members, and Mr. +Cruger, a considerable merchant at Bristol. On the second day of the +poll, Lord Clare declined; and a considerable body of gentlemen, who had +wished that the city of<a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" title="84" class="pagenum"></a> Bristol should, at this critical season, be +represented by some gentleman of tried abilities and known commercial +knowledge, immediately put Mr. Burke in nomination. Some of them set off +express for London to apprise that gentleman of this event; but he was +gone to Malton, in Yorkshire. The spirit and active zeal of these +gentlemen followed him to Malton. They arrived there just after Mr. +Burke's election for that place, and invited him to Bristol.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burke, as he tells us in his first speech, acquainted his +constituents with the honorable offer that was made him, and, with their +consent, he immediately set off for Bristol, on the Tuesday, at six in +the evening; he arrived at Bristol at half past two in the afternoon, on +Thursday, the 13th of October, being the sixth day of the poll.</p> + +<p>He drove directly to the mayor's house, who not being at home, he +proceeded to the Guildhall, where he ascended the hustings, and having +saluted the electors, the sheriffs, and the two candidates, he reposed +himself for a few minutes, and then addressed the electors in a speech +which was received with great and universal applause and approbation.<a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" title="85" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ARRIVAL_AT_BRISTOL" id="ARRIVAL_AT_BRISTOL" />SPEECH<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">AT</span><br /> +<br /> +HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL.</h2> + +<p>Gentlemen,—I am come hither to solicit in person that favor which my +friends have hitherto endeavored to procure for me, by the most +obliging, and to me the most honorable exertions.</p> + +<p>I have so high an opinion of the great trust which you have to confer on +this occasion, and, by long experience, so just a diffidence in my +abilities to fill it in a manner adequate even to my own ideas, that I +should never have ventured of myself to intrude into that awful +situation. But since I am called upon by the desire of several +respectable fellow subjects, as I have done at other times, I give up my +fears to their wishes. Whatever my other deficiencies may be, I do not +know what it is to be wanting to my friends.</p> + +<p>I am not fond of attempting to raise public expectations by great +promises. At this time, there is much cause to consider, and very little +to presume. We seem to be approaching to a great crisis in our affairs, +which calls for the whole wisdom of the wisest among us, without being +able to assure ourselves that any wisdom can preserve us from many and +great inconveniences. You know I speak of our unhappy contest with +America. I confess, it is a matter on which I look down as from a +precipice. It is difficult in itself, and it is rendered more intricate +by a great <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" title="86" class="pagenum"></a>variety of plans of conduct. I do not mean to enter into +them. I will not suspect a want of good intention in framing them. But +however pure the intentions of their authors may have been, we all know +that the event has been unfortunate. The means of recovering our affairs +are not obvious. So many great questions of commerce, of finance, of +constitution, and of policy are involved in this American deliberation, +that I dare engage for nothing, but that I shall give it, without any +predilection to former opinions, or any sinister bias whatsoever, the +most honest and impartial consideration of which I am capable. The +public has a full right to it; and this great city, a main pillar in the +commercial interest of Great Britain, must totter on its base by the +slightest mistake with regard to our American measures.</p> + +<p>Thus much, however, I think it not amiss to lay before you,—that I am +not, I hope, apt to take up or lay down my opinions lightly. I have +held, and ever shall maintain, to the best of my power, unimpaired and +undiminished, the just, wise, and necessary constitutional superiority +of Great Britain. This is necessary for America as well as for us. I +never mean to depart from it. Whatever may be lost by it, I avow it. The +forfeiture even of your favor, if by such a declaration I could forfeit +it, though the first object of my ambition, never will make me disguise +my sentiments on this subject.</p> + +<p>But—I have ever had a clear opinion, and have ever held a constant +correspondent conduct, that this superiority is consistent with all the +liberties a sober and spirited American ought to desire. I never mean to +put any colonist, or any human creature, in a situation not becoming a +free man. To reconcile Brit<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" title="87" class="pagenum"></a>ish superiority with American liberty shall +be my great object, as far as my little faculties extend. I am far from +thinking that both, even yet, may not be preserved.</p> + +<p>When I first devoted myself to the public service, I considered how I +should render myself fit for it; and this I did by endeavoring to +discover what it was that gave this country the rank it holds in the +world. I found that our prosperity and dignity arose principally, if not +solely, from two sources: our Constitution, and commerce. Both these I +have spared no study to understand, and no endeavor to support.</p> + +<p>The distinguishing part of our Constitution is its liberty. To preserve +that liberty inviolate seems the particular duty and proper trust of a +member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the only liberty, I +mean is a liberty connected with order: that not only exists along with +order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres +in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle.</p> + +<p>The other source of our power is commerce, of which you are so large a +part, and which cannot exist, no more than your liberty, without a +connection with many virtues. It has ever been a very particular and a +very favorite object of my study, in its principles, and in its details. +I think many here are acquainted with the truth of what I say. This I +know,—that I have ever had my house open, and my poor services ready, +for traders and manufacturers of every denomination. My favorite +ambition is, to have those services acknowledged. I now appear before +you to make trial, whether my earnest endeavors have been so wholly +oppressed by the weakness of my <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" title="88" class="pagenum"></a>abilities as to be rendered +insignificant in the eyes of a great trading city; or whether you choose +to give a weight to humble abilities, for the sake of the honest +exertions with which they are accompanied. This is my trial to-day. My +industry is not on trial. Of my industry I am sure, as far as my +constitution of mind and body admitted.</p> + +<p>When I was invited by many respectable merchants, freeholders, and +freemen of this city to offer them my services, I had just received the +honor of an election at another place, at a very great distance from +this. I immediately opened the matter to those of my worthy constituents +who were with me, and they unanimously advised me not to decline it. +They told me that they had elected me with a view to the public service; +and as great questions relative to our commerce and colonies were +imminent that in such matters I might derive authority and support from +the representation of this great commercial city: they desired me, +therefore, to set off without delay, very well persuaded that I never +could forget my obligations to them or to my friends, for the choice +they had made of me. From that time to this instant I have not slept; +and if I should have the honor of being freely chosen by you, I hope I +shall be as far from slumbering or sleeping, when your service requires +me to be awake, as I have been in coming to offer myself a candidate for +your favor.<a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" title="89" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ELECTORS_OF_BRISTOL" id="ELECTORS_OF_BRISTOL" />SPEECH<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">TO THE</span><br /> +<br /> +ELECTORS OF BRISTOL,<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%">ON HIS BEING DECLARED BY THE SHERIFFS DULY ELECTED ONE OF THE<br /> +REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT FOR THAT CITY,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THURSDAY, THE 3D OF NOVEMBER, 1774.</span></h2> + + +<p>Gentlemen,—I cannot avoid sympathizing strongly with the feelings of +the gentleman who has received the same honor that you have conferred on +me. If he, who was bred and passed his whole life amongst you,—if he, +who, through the easy gradations of acquaintance, friendship, and +esteem, has obtained the honor which seems of itself, naturally and +almost insensibly, to meet with those who, by the even tenor of pleasing +manners and social virtues, slide into the love and confidence of their +fellow-citizens,—if he cannot speak but with great emotion on this +subject, surrounded as he is on all sides with his old friends,—you +will have the goodness to excuse me, if my real, unaffected +embarrassment prevents me from expressing my gratitude to you as I +ought.</p> + +<p>I was brought hither under the disadvantage of being unknown, even by +sight, to any of you. No previous canvass was made for me. I was put in +nomination after the poll was opened. I did not ap<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" title="90" class="pagenum"></a>pear until it was far +advanced. If, under all these accumulated disadvantages, your good +opinion has carried me to this happy point of success, you will pardon +me, if I can only say to you collectively, as I said to you +individually, simply and plainly, I thank you,—I am obliged to you,—I +am not insensible of your kindness.</p> + +<p>This is all that I am able to say for the inestimable favor you have +conferred upon me. But I cannot be satisfied without saying a little +more in defence of the right you have to confer such a favor. The person +that appeared here as counsel for the candidate who so long and so +earnestly solicited your votes thinks proper to deny that a very great +part of you have any votes to give. He fixes a standard period of time +in his own imagination, (not what the law defines, but merely what the +convenience of his client suggests,) by which he would cut off at one +stroke all those freedoms which are the dearest privileges of your +corporation,—which the Common Law authorizes,—which your magistrates +are compelled to grant,—which come duly authenticated into this +court,—and are saved in the clearest words, and with the most religious +care and tenderness, in that very act of Parliament which was made to +regulate the elections by freemen, and to prevent all possible abuses in +making them.</p> + +<p>I do not intend to argue the matter here. My learned counsel has +supported your cause with his usual ability; the worthy sheriffs have +acted with their usual equity; and I have no doubt that the same equity +which dictates the return will guide the final determination. I had the +honor, in conjunction with many far wiser men, to contribute a <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" title="91" class="pagenum"></a>very +small assistance, but, however, some assistance, to the forming the +judicature which is to try such questions. It would be unnatural in me +to doubt the justice of that court, in the trial of my own cause, to +which I have been so active to give jurisdiction over every other.</p> + +<p>I assure the worthy freemen, and this corporation, that, if the +gentleman perseveres in the intentions which his present warmth dictates +to him, I will attend their cause with diligence, and I hope with +effect. For, if I know anything of myself, it is not my own interest in +it, but my full conviction, that induces me to tell you, <i>I think there +is not a shadow of doubt in the case</i>.</p> + +<p>I do not imagine that you find me rash in declaring myself, or very +forward in troubling you. From the beginning to the end of the election, +I have kept silence in all matters of discussion. I have never asked a +question of a voter on the other side, or supported a doubtful vote on +my own. I respected the abilities of my managers; I relied on the candor +of the court. I think the worthy sheriffs will bear me witness that I +have never once made an attempt to impose upon their reason, to surprise +their justice, or to ruffle their temper. I stood on the hustings +(except when I gave my thanks to those who favored me with their votes) +less like a candidate than an unconcerned spectator of a public +proceeding. But here the face of things is altered. Here is an attempt +for a general <i>massacre</i> of suffrages,—an attempt, by a promiscuous +carnage of <i>friends</i> and <i>foes</i>, to exterminate above two thousand +votes, including <i>seven hundred polled for the gentleman himself who now +complains</i>, and who would destroy the friends whom he has obtained, only +<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" title="92" class="pagenum"></a>because he cannot obtain as many of them as he wishes.</p> + +<p>How he will be permitted, in another place, to stultify and disable +himself, and to plead against his own acts, is another question. The law +will decide it. I shall only speak of it as it concerns the propriety of +public conduct in this city. I do not pretend to lay down rules of +decorum for other gentlemen. They are best judges of the mode of +proceeding that will recommend them to the favor of their +fellow-citizens. But I confess I should look rather awkward, if I had +been <i>the very first to produce the new copies of freedom</i>,—if I had +persisted in producing them to the last,—if I had ransacked, with the +most unremitting industry and the most penetrating research, the +remotest corners of the kingdom to discover them,—if I were then, all +at once, to turn short, and declare that I had been sporting all this +while with the right of election, and that I had been drawing out a +poll, upon no sort of rational grounds, which disturbed the peace of my +fellow-citizens for a month together;—I really, for my part, should +appear awkward under such circumstances.</p> + +<p>It would be still more awkward in me, if I were gravely to look the +sheriffs in the face, and to tell them they were not to determine my +cause on my own principles, nor to make the return upon those votes upon +which I had rested my election. Such would be my appearance to the court +and magistrates.</p> + +<p>But how should I appear to the <i>voters</i> themselves? If I had gone round +to the citizens entitled to freedom, and squeezed them by the +hand,—"Sir, I humbly beg your vote,—I shall be eternally +thankful,—<a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" title="93" class="pagenum"></a>may I hope for the honor of your support?—Well!—come,—we +shall see you at the Council-House."—If I were then to deliver them to +my managers, pack them into tallies, vote them off in court, and when I +heard from the bar,—"Such a one only! and such a one forever!—he's my +man!"—"Thank you, good Sir,—Hah! my worthy friend! thank you +kindly,—that's an honest fellow,—how is your good family?"—Whilst +these words were hardly out of my mouth, if I should have wheeled round +at once, and told them,—"Get you gone, you pack of worthless fellows! +you have no votes,—you are usurpers! you are intruders on the rights of +real freemen! I will have nothing to do with you! you ought never to +have been produced at this election, and the sheriffs ought not to have +admitted you to poll!"—</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, I should make a strange figure, if my conduct had been of +this sort. I am not so old an acquaintance of yours as the worthy +gentleman. Indeed, I could not have ventured on such kind of freedoms +with you. But I am bound, and I will endeavor, to have justice done to +the rights of freemen,—even though I should at the same time be obliged +to vindicate the former<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17" /><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor" +title="Mr. Brickdale opened his poll, it seems, with a tally of those very kind of freemen, and voted many hundreds of them.">[17]</a> part of my antagonist's conduct against his +own present inclinations.</p> + +<p>I owe myself, in all things, to <i>all</i> the freemen of this city. My +particular friends have a demand on mo that I should not deceive their +expectations. Never was cause or man supported with more constancy, more +activity, more spirit. I have been supported with a zeal, indeed, and +heartiness in my friends, which (if their object had been at all +propor<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" title="94" class="pagenum"></a>tioned to their endeavors) could never be sufficiently commended. +They supported me upon the most liberal principles. They wished that the +members for Bristol should be chosen for the city, and for their country +at large, and not for themselves.</p> + +<p>So far they are not disappointed. If I possess nothing else, I am sure I +possess the temper that is fit for your service. I know nothing of +Bristol, but by the favors I have received, and the virtues I have seen +exerted in it.</p> + +<p>I shall ever retain, what I now feel, the most perfect and grateful +attachment to my friends,—and I have no enmities, no resentments. I +never can consider fidelity to engagements and constancy in friendships +but with the highest approbation, even when those noble qualities are +employed against my own pretensions. The gentleman who is not so +fortunate as I have been in this contest enjoys, in this respect, a +consolation full of honor both to himself and to his friends. They have +certainly left nothing undone for his service.</p> + +<p>As for the trifling petulance which the rage of party stirs up in little +minds, though it should show itself even in this court, it has not made +the slightest impression on me. The highest flight of such clamorous +birds is winged in an inferior region of the air. We hear them, and we +look upon them, just as you, Gentlemen, when you enjoy the serene air on +your lofty rocks, look down upon the gulls that skim the mud of your +river, when it is exhausted of its tide.</p> + +<p>I am sorry I cannot conclude without saying a word on a topic touched +upon by my worthy colleague. I wish that topic had been passed by at a +time when I have so little leisure to discuss it. But <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" title="95" class="pagenum"></a>since he has +thought proper to throw it out, I owe you a clear explanation of my poor +sentiments on that subject.</p> + +<p>He tells you that "the topic of instructions has occasioned much +altercation and uneasiness in this city"; and he expresses himself (if I +understand him rightly) in favor of the coercive authority of such +instructions.</p> + +<p>Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a +representative to live in the strictest union, the closest +correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his +constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their +opinions high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his +duty to sacrifice his repose, his <i>pleasure</i>, <i>his satisfactions</i>, <i>to +theirs</i>,—and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their +interest to his own.</p> + +<p>But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened +conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set +of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure,—no, nor +from the law and the Constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for +the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes +you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of +serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.</p> + +<p>My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient to yours. If +that be all, the thing is innocent. If government were a matter of will +upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be superior. But +government and legislation are matters of reason and judgment, and not +of inclination; and what sort <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" title="96" class="pagenum"></a>of reason is that in which the +determination precedes the discussion, in which one set of men +deliberate and another decide, and where those who form the conclusion +are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the +arguments?</p> + +<p>To deliver an opinion is the right of all men; that of constituents is a +weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative ought always to +rejoice to hear, and which he ought always most seriously to consider. +But <i>authoritative</i> instructions, <i>mandates</i> issued, which the member is +bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though +contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and +conscience,—these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, +and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor +of our Constitution.</p> + +<p>Parliament is not a <i>congress</i> of ambassadors from different and hostile +interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, +against other agents and advocates; but Parliament is a <i>deliberative</i> +assembly of <i>one</i> nation, with <i>one</i> interest, that of the whole—where +not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the +general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose +a member, indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of +Bristol, but he is a member of <i>Parliament</i>. If the local constituent +should have an interest or should form an hasty opinion evidently +opposite to the real good of the rest of the community, the member for +that place ought to be as far as any other from any endeavor to give it +effect. I beg pardon for saying so much on this subject; I have been +unwillingly drawn into it; but I shall ever use <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" title="97" class="pagenum"></a>a respectful frankness +of communication with you. Your faithful friend, your devoted servant, I +shall be to the end of my life: a flatterer you do not wish for. On this +point of instructions, however, I think it scarcely possible we ever can +have any sort of difference. Perhaps I may give you too much, rather +than too little trouble.</p> + +<p>From the first hour I was encouraged to court your favor, to this happy +day of obtaining it, I have never promised you anything but humble and +persevering endeavors to do my duty. The weight of that duty, I confess, +makes me tremble; and whoever well considers what it is, of all things +in the world, will fly from what has the least likeness to a positive +and precipitate engagement. To be a good member of Parliament is, let me +tell you, no easy task,—especially at this time, when there is so +strong a disposition to run into the perilous extremes of servile +compliance or wild popularity. To unite circumspection with vigor is +absolutely necessary, but it is extremely difficult. We are now members +for a rich commercial <i>city</i>; this city, however, is but a part of a +rich commercial <i>nation</i>, the interests of which are various, multiform, +and intricate. We are members for that great nation, which, however, is +itself but part of a great <i>empire</i>, extended by our virtue and our +fortune to the farthest limits of the East and of the West. All these +wide-spread interests must be considered,—must be compared,—must be +reconciled, if possible. We are members for a <i>free</i> country; and surely +we all know that the machine of a free constitution is no simple thing, +but as intricate and as delicate as it is valuable. We are members in a +great and ancient <i>monarchy</i>; and we must preserve religiously the true, +<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" title="98" class="pagenum"></a>legal rights of the sovereign, which form the keystone that binds +together the noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our +Constitution. A constitution made up of balanced powers must ever be a +critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part of it which comes +within my reach. I know my inability, and I wish for support from every +quarter. In particular I shall aim at the friendship, and shall +cultivate the best correspondence, of the worthy colleague you have +given me.</p> + +<p>I trouble you no farther than once more to thank you all: you, +Gentlemen, for your favors; the candidates, for their temperate and +polite behavior; and the sheriffs, for a conduct which may give a model +for all who are in public stations.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17" /><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Mr. Brickdale opened his poll, it seems, with a tally of +those very kind of freemen, and voted many hundreds of them.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" title="99" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<h2><a name="CONCILIATION_WITH_THE_COLONIES" id="CONCILIATION_WITH_THE_COLONIES" />SPEECH<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br /> +<br /> +MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">MARCH 22, 1775.</span></h2> +<p><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" title="100" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" title="101" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p>I hope, Sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity of the Chair, your +good-nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence towards human +frailty. You will not think it unnatural, that those who have an object +depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be +somewhat inclined to superstition. As I came into the House, full of +anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my infinite surprise, +that the grand penal bill by which we had passed sentence on the trade +and sustenance of America is to be returned to us from the other +House.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18" /><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor" +title="The act to restrain the trade and commerce of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New +Hampshire, and colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, in North +America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands in the West Indies; and to prohibit +such provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, and other +places therein mentioned, under certain conditions and limitations.">[18]</a> I do confess, I +could not help looking on this event as a +fortunate omen. I look upon it as a sort of Providential favor, by which +we are put once more in possession of our deliberative capacity, upon a +business so very questionable in its nature, so very uncertain in its +issue. By the return of this bill, which seemed to have taken its flight +forever, we are at this very instant nearly as free to choose a plan for +our American government as we were on the first day of the <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" title="102" class="pagenum"></a>session. If, +Sir, we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all +embarrassed (unless we please to make ourselves so) by any incongruous +mixture of coercion and restraint. We are therefore called upon, as it +were by a superior warning voice, again to attend to America,—to attend +to the whole of it together,—and to review the subject with an unusual +degree of care and calmness.</p> + +<p>Surely it is an awful subject,—or there is none so on this side of the +grave. When I first had the honor of a seat in this House, the affairs +of that continent pressed themselves upon us as the most important and +most delicate object of Parliamentary attention. My little share in this +great deliberation oppressed me. I found myself a partaker in a very +high trust; and having no sort of reason to rely on the strength of my +natural abilities for the proper execution of that trust, I was obliged +to take more than common pains to instruct myself in everything which +relates to our colonies. I was not less under the necessity of forming +some fixed ideas concerning the general policy of the British empire. +Something of this sort seemed to be indispensable, in order, amidst so +vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to concentre my thoughts, +to ballast my conduct, to preserve me from being blown about by every +wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did not think it safe or manly to +have fresh principles to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive +from America.</p> + +<p>At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect concurrence +with a large majority in this House. Bowing under that high authority, +and penetrated with the sharpness and strength of that early +<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" title="103" class="pagenum"></a>impression, I have continued ever since, without the least deviation, +in my original sentiments. Whether this be owing to an obstinate +perseverance in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me +truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge.</p> + +<p>Sir, Parliament, having an enlarged view of objects, made, during this +interval, more frequent changes in their sentiments and their conduct +than could be justified in a particular person upon the contracted scale +of private information. But though I do not hazard anything approaching +to a censure on the motives of former Parliaments to all those +alterations, one fact is undoubted,—that under them the state of +America has been kept in continual agitation. Everything administered as +remedy to the public complaint, if it did not produce, was at least +followed by, an heightening of the distemper, until, by a variety of +experiments, that important country has been brought into her present +situation,—a situation which I will not miscall, which I dare not name, +which I scarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any description.</p> + +<p>In this posture, Sir, things stood at the beginning of the session. +About that time, a worthy member,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19" /><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor" +title="Mr. Rose Fuller.">[19]</a> of great Parliamentary experience, +who in the year 1766 filled the chair of the American Committee with +much ability, took me aside, and, lamenting the present aspect of our +politics, told me, things were come to such a pass that our former +methods of proceeding in the House would be no longer tolerated,—that +the public tribunal (never too indulgent to a long and unsuccessful +opposition) would now scrutinize our conduct with unusual +severity,—that the <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" title="104" class="pagenum"></a>very vicissitudes and shiftings of ministerial +measures, instead of convicting their authors of inconstancy and want of +system, would be taken as an occasion of charging us with a +predetermined discontent which nothing could satisfy, whilst we accused +every measure of vigor as cruel and every proposal of lenity as weak and +irresolute. The public, he said, would not have patience to see us play +the game out with our adversaries; we must produce our hand: it would be +expected that those who for many years had been active in such affairs +should show that they had formed some clear and decided idea of the +principles of colony government, and were capable of drawing out +something like a platform of the ground which might be laid for future +and permanent tranquillity.</p> + +<p>I felt the truth of what my honorable friend represented; but I felt my +situation, too. His application might have been made with far greater +propriety to many other gentlemen. No man was, indeed, ever better +disposed, or worse qualified, for such an undertaking, than myself. +Though I gave so far into his opinion, that I immediately threw my +thoughts into a sort of Parliamentary form, I was by no means equally +ready to produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural +impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, to hazard +plans of government, except from a seat of authority. Propositions are +made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably, when the minds +of men are not properly disposed for their reception; and for my part, I +am not ambitious of ridicule, not absolutely a candidate for disgrace.</p> + +<p>Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in gen<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" title="105" class="pagenum"></a>eral no very +exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government, nor of any polities +in which the plan is to be wholly separated from the execution. But when +I saw that anger and violence prevailed every day more and more, and +that things were hastening towards an incurable alienation of our +colonies, I confess my caution gave way. I felt this as one of those few +moments in which decorum yields to an higher duty. Public calamity is a +mighty leveller; and there are occasions when any, even the slightest, +chance of doing good must be laid hold on, even by the most +inconsiderable person.</p> + +<p>To restore order and repose to an empire so great and so distracted as +ours is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the +flights of the highest genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the +meanest understanding. Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by +degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived, at length, some confidence +from what in other circumstances usually produces timidity. I grew less +anxious, even from the idea of my own insignificance. For, judging of +what you are by what you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would +not reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing but its +reason to recommend it. On the other hand, being totally destitute of +all shadow of influence, natural or adventitious, I was very sure, that, +if my proposition were futile or dangerous, if it were weakly conceived +or improperly timed, there was nothing exterior to it of power to awe, +dazzle, or delude you. You will see it just as it is, and you will treat +it just as it deserves.</p> + +<p>The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace +to be hunted through the <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" title="106" class="pagenum"></a>labyrinth of intricate and endless +negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from +principle, in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the +juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking +the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, +sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace +sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. I +propose, by removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the +<i>former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country</i>, +to give permanent satisfaction to your people,—and (far from a scheme +of ruling by discord) to reconcile them to each other in the same act +and by the bond of the very same interest which reconciles them to +British government.</p> + +<p>My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever has been the parent of +confusion,—and ever will be so, as long as the world endures. Plain +good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud +is surely detected at last, is, let me say, of no mean force in the +government of mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is an healing and +cementing principle. My plan, therefore, being formed upon the most +simple grounds imaginable, may disappoint some people, when they hear +it. It has nothing to recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. +There is nothing at all new and captivating in it. It has nothing of the +splendor of the project which has been lately laid upon your table by +the noble lord in the blue riband.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20" /><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor" +title=""That when the governor, council, and assembly, or general court, of any of his Majesty's +provinces or colonies in America shall propose to make provision, according to the condition, +circumstances, and situation of such province or colony, for contributing their proportion to +the common defence, (such proportion to be raised under the authority of the general court or +general assembly of such province or 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 province or colony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be approved +by his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament, and for so long as such provision shall +be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province or colony, to levy any duty, +tax, or assessment, or to impose any farther duty, tax, or assessment, except only such +duties as it may be expedient to continue to levy or to impose for the regulation of commerce: +the net produce of the duties last mentioned to be carried to the account of such province +or colony respectively."—Resolution moved by Lord North in the Committee, and agreed to by the House, 27th February, 1775.">[20]</a> It does not propose to fill your +lobby with <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" title="107" class="pagenum"></a>squabbling colony agents, who will require the interposition +of your mace at every instant to keep the peace amongst them. It does +not institute a magnificent auction of finance, where captivated +provinces come to general ransom by bidding against each other, until +you knock down the hammer, and determine a proportion of payments beyond +all the powers of algebra to equalize and settle.</p> + +<p>The plan which I shall presume to suggest derives, however, one great +advantage from the proposition and registry of that noble lord's +project. The idea of conciliation is admissible. First, the House, in +accepting the resolution moved by the noble lord, has admitted, +notwithstanding the menacing front of our address, notwithstanding our +heavy bill of pains and penalties, that we do not think ourselves +precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty.</p> + +<p>The House has gone farther: it has declared conciliation admissible +<i>previous</i> to any submission on the part of America. It has even shot a +good deal beyond that mark, and has admitted that the com<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" title="108" class="pagenum"></a>plaints of our +former mode of exerting the right of taxation were not wholly unfounded. +That right thus exerted is allowed to have had something reprehensible +in it,—something unwise, or something grievous; since, in the midst of +our heat and resentment, we, of ourselves, have proposed a capital +alteration, and, in order to get rid of what seemed so very +exceptionable, have instituted a mode that is altogether new,—one that +is, indeed, wholly alien from all the ancient methods and forms of +Parliament.</p> + +<p>The <i>principle</i> of this proceeding is large enough for my purpose. The +means proposed by the noble lord for carrying his ideas into execution, +I think, indeed, are very indifferently suited to the end; and this I +shall endeavor to show you before I sit down. But, for the present, I +take my ground on the admitted principle. I mean to give peace. Peace +implies reconciliation; and where there has been a material dispute, +reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession on the one part +or on the other. In this state of things I make no difficulty in +affirming that the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and +acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by +an unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer peace +with honor and with safety. Such an offer from such a power will be +attributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the +concessions of fear. When such a one is disarmed, he is wholly at the +mercy of his superior; and he loses forever that time and those chances +which, as they happen to all men, are the strength and resources of all +inferior power.</p> + +<p>The capital leading questions on which you must this day decide are +these two: First, whether you <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" title="109" class="pagenum"></a>ought to concede; and secondly, what your +concession ought to be. On the first of these questions we have gained +(as I have just taken the liberty of observing to you) some ground. But +I am sensible that a good deal more is still to be done. Indeed, Sir, to +enable us to determine both on the one and the other of these great +questions with a firm and precise judgment, I think it may be necessary +to consider distinctly the true nature and the peculiar circumstances of +the object which we have before us: because, after all our struggle, +whether we will or not, we must govern America according to that nature +and to those circumstances, and not according to our own imaginations, +not according to abstract ideas of right, by no means according to mere +general theories of government, the resort to which appears to me, in +our present situation, no better than arrant trifling. I shall therefore +endeavor, with your leave, to lay before you some of the most material +of these circumstances in as full and as clear a manner as I am able to +state them.</p> + +<p>The first thing that we have to consider with regard to the nature of +the object is the number of people in the colonies. I have taken for +some years a good deal of pains on that point. I can by no calculation +justify myself in placing the number below two millions of inhabitants +of our own European blood and color,—besides at least 500,000 others, +who form no inconsiderable part of the strength and opulence of the +whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about the true number. There is no +occasion to exaggerate, where plain truth is of so much weight and +importance. But whether I put the present numbers too high or too low is +a matter of little moment. Such is the <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" title="110" class="pagenum"></a>strength with which population +shoots in that part of the world, that, state the numbers as high as we +will, whilst the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends. Whilst we are +discussing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilst we spend +our time in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we shall +find we have millions more to manage. Your children do not grow faster +from infancy to manhood than they spread from families to communities, +and from villages to nations.</p> + +<p>I put this consideration of the present and the growing numbers in the +front of our deliberation, because, Sir, this consideration will make it +evident to a blunter discernment than yours, that no partial, narrow, +contracted, pinched, occasional system will be at all suitable to such +an object. It will show you that it is not to be considered as one of +those <i>minima</i> which are out of the eye and consideration of the +law,—not a paltry excrescence of the state,—not a mean dependant, who +may be neglected with little damage and provoked with little danger. It +will prove that some degree of care and caution is required in the +handling such an object; it will show that you ought not, in reason, to +trifle with so large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human +race. You could at no time do so without guilt; and be assured you will +not be able to do it long with impunity.</p> + +<p>But the population of this country, the great and growing population, +though a very important consideration, will lose much of its weight, if +not combined with other circumstances. The commerce of your colonies is +out of all proportion beyond the numbers of the people. This ground of +their commerce, in<a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" title="111" class="pagenum"></a>deed, has been trod some days ago, and with great +ability, by a distinguished person,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21" /><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor" +title="Mr. Glover.">[21]</a> at your bar. This gentleman, +after thirty-five years,—it is so long since he first appeared at the +same place to plead for the commerce of Great Britain,—has come again +before you to plead the same cause, without any other effect of time +than that to the fire of imagination and extent of erudition, which even +then marked him as one of the first literary characters of his age, he +has added a consummate knowledge in the commercial interest of his +country, formed by a long course of enlightened and discriminating +experience.</p> + +<p>Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after such a person with any +detail, if a great part of the members who now fill the House had not +the misfortune to be absent when he appeared at your bar. Besides, Sir, +I propose to take the matter at periods of time somewhat different from +his. There is, if I mistake not, a point of view from whence, if you +will look at this subject, it is impossible that it should not make an +impression upon you.</p> + +<p>I have in my hand two accounts: one a comparative state of the export +trade of England to its colonies, as it stood in the year 1704, and as +it stood in the year 1772; the other a state of the export trade of this +country to its colonies alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the +whole trade of England to all parts of the world (the colonies included) +in the year 1704. They are from good vouchers: the latter period from +the accounts on your table; the earlier from an original manuscript of +Davenant, who first established the Inspector-General's office, <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" title="112" class="pagenum"></a>which +has been ever since his time so abundant a source of Parliamentary +information.</p> + +<p>The export trade to the colonies consists of three great branches: the +African, which, terminating almost wholly in the colonies, must be put +to the account of their commerce; the West Indian; and the North +American. All these are so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them +would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole, and, if not entirely +destroy, would very much depreciate, the value of all the parts. I +therefore consider these three denominations to be, what in effect they +are, one trade.</p> + +<p>The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the beginning of +this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood thus:—</p> + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="width: 100%; max-width: 35em; padding-left: 1em;"> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap">Exports to North America and the West +Indies</td><td align='right'>£ 483,265</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap">To Africa</td><td align='right'>86,665</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap"></td><td align='right' class="bt">£ 569,930</td></tr></table> + + + +<p>In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between the highest and +lowest of those lately laid on your table, the account was as follows:—</p> + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="width: 100%; max-width: 35em; padding-left: 1em;"> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap">To North America and the West Indies</td><td align='right'>£ 4,791,734</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap">To Africa</td><td align='right'>866,398</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap">To which if you add the export trade +from Scotland, which had in 1704 no +existence</td><td align='right'>364,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right' class="bt">£6,024,171</td></tr></table> + + + +<p>From five hundred and odd thousand, it has grown to six millions. It has +increased no less than twelve-fold. This is the state of the colony +trade, as com<a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" title="113" class="pagenum"></a>pared with itself at these two periods, within this +century;—and this is matter for meditation. But this is not all. +Examine my second account. See how the export trade to the colonies +alone in 1772 stood in the other point of view, that is, as compared to +the whole trade of England in 1704.</p> + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="" style="width: 100%; max-width: 35em; padding-left: 1em;"> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap">The whole export trade of England, including +that to the colonies, in 1704</td><td align='right'>£6,509,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left' class="wrap">Export to the colonies alone, in 1772</td><td align='right' class="bb">6,024,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>Difference</td><td align='right'>£485,000</td></tr></table> + + + +<p>The trade with America alone is now within less than 500,000<i>l.</i> of +being equal to what this great commercial nation, England, carried on at +the beginning of this century with the whole world! If I had taken the +largest year of those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But, +it will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural protuberance, +that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body? The reverse. It is +the very food that has nourished every other part into its present +magnitude. Our general trade has been greatly augmented, and augmented +more or less in almost every part to which it ever extended, but with +this material difference: that of the six millions which in the +beginning of the century constituted the whole mass of our export +commerce the colony trade was but one twelfth part; it is now (as a part +of sixteen millions) considerably more than a third of the whole. This +is the relative proportion of the importance of the colonies at these +two periods: and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating them must +have this proportion as its basis, or it is a reasoning weak, rotten, +and sophistical.</p> + +<p>Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to hurry <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" title="114" class="pagenum"></a>over this great +consideration. It is good for us to be here. We stand where we have an +immense view of what is, and what is past. Clouds indeed, and darkness, +rest upon the future. Let us, however, before we descend from this noble +eminence, reflect that this growth of our national prosperity has +happened within the short period of the life of man. It has happened +within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose memory might touch +the two extremities. For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all +the stages of the progress. He was in 1704 of an age at least to be made +to comprehend such things. He was then old enough <i>acta parentum jam +legere, et quæ sit poterit cognoscere virtus</i>. Suppose, Sir, that the +angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues which made +him one of the most amiable, as he is one of the most fortunate men of +his age, had opened to him in vision, that, when, in the fourth +generation, the third prince of the House of Brunswick had sat twelve +years on the throne of that nation which (by the happy issue of moderate +and healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should see his +son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back the current of hereditary +dignity to its fountain, and raise him to an higher rank of peerage, +whilst he enriched the family with a new one,—if, amidst these bright +and happy scenes of domestic honor and prosperity, that angel should +have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his +country, and whilst he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial +grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a little speck, +scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, a small seminal +principle rather than a formed body, and should tell him,—"Young <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" title="115" class="pagenum"></a>man, +there is America,—which at this day serves for little more than to +amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners, yet shall, +before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that +commerce which now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England has +been growing to by a progressive increase of improvement, brought in by +varieties of people, by succession of civilizing conquests and +civilizing settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall +see as much added to her by America in the course of a single life!" If +this state of his country had been foretold to him, would it not require +all the sanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of +enthusiasm, to make him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see +it! Fortunate indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the +prospect, and cloud the setting of his day!</p> + +<p>Excuse me, Sir, if, turning from such thoughts, I resume this +comparative view once more. You have seen it on a large scale; look at +it on a small one. I will point out to your attention a particular +instance of it in the single province of Pennsylvania. In the year 1704, +that province called for 11,459<i>l.</i> in value of your commodities, +native and foreign. This was the whole. What did it demand in 1772! Why, +nearly fifty times as much; for in that year the export to Pennsylvania +was 507,909<i>l.</i>, nearly equal to the export to all the colonies +together in the first period.</p> + +<p>I choose, Sir, to enter into these minute and particular details; +because generalities, which in all other cases are apt to heighten and +raise the subject, have here a tendency to sink it. When we speak of the +commerce with our colonies, fiction lags after <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" title="116" class="pagenum"></a>truth, invention is +unfruitful, and imagination cold and barren.</p> + +<p>So far, Sir, as to the importance of the object in the view of its +commerce, as concerned in the exports from England. If I were to detail +the imports, I could show how many enjoyments they procure which deceive +the burden of life, how many materials which invigorate the springs of +national industry and extend and animate every part of our foreign and +domestic commerce. This would be a curious subject indeed,—but I must +prescribe bounds to myself in a matter so vast and various.</p> + +<p>I pass, therefore, to the colonies in another point of view,—their +agriculture. This they have prosecuted with such a spirit, that, besides +feeding plentifully their own growing multitude, their annual export of +grain, comprehending rice, has some years ago exceeded a million in +value. Of their last harvest, I am persuaded, they will export much +more. At the beginning of the century some of these colonies imported +corn from the mother country. For some time past the Old World has been +fed from the New. The scarcity which you have felt would have been a +desolating famine, if this child of your old age, with a true filial +piety, with a Roman charity, had not put the full breast of its youthful +exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent.</p> + +<p>As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the sea by their +fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. You surely +thought those acquisitions of value, for they seemed even to excite your +envy; and yet the spirit by which that enterprising employment has been +exercised ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and +<a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" title="117" class="pagenum"></a>admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it? Pass by +the other parts, and look at the manner in which the people of New +England have of late carried on the whale-fishery. Whilst we follow them +among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into +the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst +we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they +have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at +the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the South. +Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the +grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the +progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more +discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We +know, that, whilst some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on +the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic +game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their +fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the +perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous +and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous +mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by this +recent people,—a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, +and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. When I contemplate these +things,—when I know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing +to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form +by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, +through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been +suf<a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" title="118" class="pagenum"></a>fered to take her own way to perfection,—when I reflect upon these +effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the +pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human +contrivances melt and die away within me,—my rigor relents,—I pardon +something to the spirit of liberty.</p> + +<p>I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in my detail is +admitted in the gross, but that quite a different conclusion is drawn +from it. America, gentlemen say, is a noble object,—it is an object +well worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the +best way of gaining them. Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their +choice of means by their complexions and their habits. Those who +understand the military art will of course have some predilection for +it. Those who wield the thunder of the state may have more confidence in +the efficacy of arms. But I confess, possibly for want of this +knowledge, my opinion is much more in favor of prudent management than +of force,—considering force not as an odious, but a feeble instrument, +for preserving a people so numerous, so active, so growing, so spirited +as this, in a profitable and subordinate connection with us.</p> + +<p>First, Sir, permit me to observe, that the use of force alone is but +<i>temporary</i>. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the +necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed which is +perpetually to be conquered.</p> + +<p>My next objection is its <i>uncertainty</i>. Terror is not always the effect +of force, and an armament is not a victory. If you do not succeed, you +are without resource: for, conciliation failing, force remains; but, +<a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" title="119" class="pagenum"></a>force failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and +authority are sometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged +as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence.</p> + +<p>A further objection to force is, that you <i>impair the object</i> by your +very endeavors to preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing +which you recover, but depreciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed in the +contest. Nothing less will content me than <i>whole America</i>. I do not +choose to consume its strength along with our own; because in all parts +it is the British strength that I consume. I do not choose to be caught +by a foreign enemy at the end of this exhausting conflict, and still +less in the midst of it. I may escape, but I can make no insurance +against such an event. Let me add, that I do not choose wholly to break +the American spirit; because it is the spirit that has made the country.</p> + +<p>Lastly, we have no sort of <i>experience</i> in favor of force as an +instrument in the rule of our colonies. Their growth and their utility +has been owing to methods altogether different. Our ancient indulgence +has been said to be pursued to a fault. It may be so; but we know, if +feeling is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable than our attempt +to mend it, and our sin far more salutary than our penitence.</p> + +<p>These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that high opinion of +untried force by which many gentlemen, for whose sentiments in other +particulars I have great respect, seem to be so greatly captivated. But +there is still behind a third consideration concerning this object, +which serves to determine my opinion on the sort of policy which ought +to be pursued in the management of America, even more than its +popula<a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" title="120" class="pagenum"></a>tion and its commerce: I mean its <i>temper and character</i>.</p> + +<p>In this character of the Americans a love of freedom is the +predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole: and as an +ardent is always a jealous affection, your colonies become suspicious, +restive, and untractable, whenever they see the least attempt to wrest +from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the +only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is +stronger in the English colonies, probably, than in any other people of +the earth, and this from a great variety of powerful causes; which, to +understand the true temper of their minds, and the direction which this +spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay open somewhat more largely.</p> + +<p>First, the people of the colonies are descendants of Englishmen. +England, Sir, is a nation which still, I hope, respects, and formerly +adored, her freedom. The colonists emigrated from you when this part of +your character was most predominant; and they took this bias and +direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are therefore not +only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and +on English principles. Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, +is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible object; and every +nation has formed to itself some favorite point, which by way of +eminence becomes the criterion of their happiness. It happened, you +know, Sir, that the great contests for freedom in this country were from +the earliest times chiefly upon the question of taxing. Most of the +contests in the ancient commonwealths turned primarily on the right of +election of magistrates, or on the bal<a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" title="121" class="pagenum"></a>ance among the several orders of +the state. The question of money was not with them so immediate. But in +England it was otherwise. On this point of taxes the ablest pens and +most eloquent tongues have been exercised, the greatest spirits have +acted and suffered. In order to give the fullest satisfaction concerning +the importance of this point, it was not only necessary for those who in +argument defended the excellence of the English Constitution to insist +on this privilege of granting money as a dry point of fact, and to prove +that the right had been acknowledged in ancient parchments and blind +usages to reside in a certain body called an House of Commons: they went +much further: they attempted to prove, and they succeeded, that in +theory it ought to be so, from the particular nature of a House of +Commons, as an immediate representative of the people, whether the old +records had delivered this oracle or not. They took infinite pains to +inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that in all monarchies the people +must in effect themselves, mediately or immediately, possess the power +of granting their own money, or no shadow of liberty could subsist. The +colonies draw from you, as with their life-blood, these ideas and +principles. Their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on +this specific point of taxing. Liberty might be safe or might be +endangered in twenty other particulars without their being much pleased +or alarmed. Here they felt its pulse; and as they found that beat, they +thought themselves sick or sound. I do not say whether they were right +or wrong in applying your general arguments to their own case. It is not +easy, indeed, to make a monopoly of theorems and corollaries. The fact +is, that they did thus apply those gen<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" title="122" class="pagenum"></a>eral arguments; and your mode of +governing them, whether through lenity or indolence, through wisdom or +mistake, confirmed them in the imagination, that they, as well as you, +had an interest in these common principles.</p> + +<p>They were further confirmed in this pleasing error by the form of their +provincial legislative assemblies. Their governments are popular in an +high degree: some are merely popular; in all, the popular representative +is the most weighty; and this share of the people in their ordinary +government never fails to inspire them with lofty sentiments, and with a +strong aversion from whatever tends to deprive them of their chief +importance.</p> + +<p>If anything were wanting to this necessary operation of the form of +government, religion would have given it a complete effect. Religion, +always a principle of energy, in this new people is no way worn out or +impaired; and their mode of professing it is also one main cause of this +free spirit. The people are Protestants, and of that kind which is the +most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is a +persuasion not only favorable to liberty, but built upon it. I do not +think, Sir, that the reason of this averseness in the dissenting +churches from all that looks like absolute government is so much to be +sought in their religious tenets as in their history. Every one knows +that the Roman Catholic religion is at least coeval with most of the +governments where it prevails, that it has generally gone hand in hand +with them, and received great favor and every kind of support from +authority. The Church of England, too, was formed from her cradle under +the nursing care of regular government. But the dissenting in<a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" title="123" class="pagenum"></a>terests +have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of the +world, and could justify that opposition only on a strong claim to +natural liberty. Their very existence depended on the powerful and +unremitted assertion of that claim. All Protestantism, even the most +cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent +in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance: +it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant +religion. This religion, under a variety of denominations agreeing in +nothing but in the communion of the spirit of liberty, is predominant in +most of the northern provinces, where the Church of England, +notwithstanding its legal rights, is in reality no more than a sort of +private sect, not composing, most probably, the tenth of the people. The +colonists left England when this spirit was high, and in the emigrants +was the highest of all; and even that stream of foreigners which has +been constantly flowing into these colonies has, for the greatest part, +been composed of dissenters from the establishments of their several +countries, and have brought with them a temper and character far from +alien to that of the people with whom they mixed.</p> + +<p>Sir, I can perceive, by their manner, that some gentlemen object to the +latitude of this description, because in the southern colonies the +Church of England forms a large body, and has a regular establishment. +It is certainly true. There is, however, a circumstance attending these +colonies, which, in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, +and makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than in +those to the northward. It is, that in Virginia and the Carolinas they +have a vast multitude of <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" title="124" class="pagenum"></a>slaves. Where this is the case in any part of +the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of +their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of +rank and privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in countries +where it is a common blessing, and as broad and general as the air, may +be united with much abject toil, with great misery, with all the +exterior of servitude, liberty looks, amongst them, like something that +is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior +morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue +in it; but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and these +people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, and with an +higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty, than those to the +northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths; such were our Gothic +ancestors; such in our days were the Poles; and such will be all masters +of slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people, the +haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies +it, and renders it invincible.</p> + +<p>Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colonies, which +contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this +untractable spirit: I mean their education. In no country, perhaps, in +the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is +numerous and powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The +greater number of the deputies sent to the Congress were lawyers. But +all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in +that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no +branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many +books as <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" title="125" class="pagenum"></a>those on the law exported to the plantations. The colonists +have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear +that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's "Commentaries" in +America as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition very +particularly in a letter on your table. He states, that all the people +in his government are lawyers, or smatterers in law,—and that in Boston +they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade many +parts of one of your capital penal constitutions. The smartness of +debate will say, that this knowledge ought to teach them more clearly +the rights of legislature, their obligations to obedience, and the +penalties of rebellion. All this is mighty well. But my honorable and +learned friend<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22" /><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor" +title="The Attorney-General.">[22]</a> on the floor, who condescends to mark what I say for +animadversion, will disdain that ground. He has heard, as well as I, +that, when great honors and great emoluments do not win over this +knowledge to the service of the state, it is a formidable adversary to +government. If the spirit be not tamed and broken by these happy +methods, it is stubborn and litigious. <i>Abeunt studia in mores</i>. This +study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready +in defence, full of resources. In other countries, the people, more +simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in +government only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, +and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the +principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the +approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.</p> + +<p>The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is hardly less +powerful than the rest, as it is not <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" title="126" class="pagenum"></a>merely moral, but laid deep in the +natural constitution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie +between you and them. No contrivance can prevent the effect of this +distance in weakening government. Seas roll, and months pass, between +the order and the execution; and the want of a speedy explanation of a +single point is enough to defeat an whole system. You have, indeed, +winged ministers of vengeance, who carry your bolts in their pounces to +the remotest verge of the sea: but there a power steps in, that limits +the arrogance of raging passions and furious elements, and says, "So far +shalt thou go, and no farther." Who are you, that should fret and rage, +and bite the chains of Nature? Nothing worse happens to you than does to +all nations who have extensive empire; and it happens in all the forms +into which empire can be thrown. In large bodies, the circulation of +power must be less vigorous at the extremities. Nature has said it. The +Turk cannot govern Egypt, and Arabia, and Kurdistan, as he governs +Thrace; nor has he the same dominion in Crimea and Algiers which he has +at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster. +The Sultan gets such obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein, +that he may govern at all; and the whole of the force and vigor of his +authority in his centre is derived from a prudent relaxation in all his +borders. Spain, in her provinces, is perhaps not so well obeyed as you +are in yours. She complies, too; she submits; she watches times. This is +the immutable condition, the eternal law, of extensive and detached +empire.</p> + +<p>Then, Sir, from these six capital sources, of descent, of form of +government, of religion in the <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" title="127" class="pagenum"></a>northern provinces, of manners in the +southern, of education, of the remoteness of situation from the first +mover of government,—from all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty +has grown up. It has grown with the growth of the people in your +colonies, and increased with the increase of their wealth: a spirit, +that, unhappily meeting with an exercise of power in England, which, +however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of liberty, much less +with theirs, has kindled this flame that is ready to consume us.</p> + +<p>I do not mean to commend either the spirit in this excess, or the moral +causes which produce it. Perhaps a more smooth and accommodating spirit +of freedom in them would be more acceptable to us. Perhaps ideas of +liberty might be desired more reconcilable with an arbitrary and +boundless authority. Perhaps we might wish the colonists to be persuaded +that their liberty is more secure when held in trust for them by us (as +their guardians during a perpetual minority) than with any part of it in +their own hands. But the question is not, whether their spirit deserves +praise or blame,—what, in the name of God, shall we do with it? You +have before you the object, such as it is,—with all its glories, with +all its imperfections on its head. You see the magnitude, the +importance, the temper, the habits, the disorders. By all these +considerations we are strongly urged to determine something concerning +it. We are called upon to fix some rule and line for our future conduct, +which may give a little stability to our politics, and prevent the +return of such unhappy deliberations as the present. Every such return +will bring the matter before us in a still more untractable form. For +what astonishing and incredible things <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" title="128" class="pagenum"></a>have we not seen already! What +monsters have not been generated from this unnatural contention! Whilst +every principle of authority and resistance has been pushed, upon both +sides, as far as it would go, there is nothing so solid and certain, +either in reasoning or in practice, that has not been shaken. Until very +lately, all authority in America seemed to be nothing but an emanation +from yours. Even the popular part of the colony constitution derived all +its activity, and its first vital movement, from the pleasure of the +crown. We thought, Sir, that the utmost which the discontented colonists +could do was to disturb authority; we never dreamt they could of +themselves supply it, knowing in general what an operose business it is +to establish a government absolutely new. But having, for our purposes +in this contention, resolved that none but an obedient assembly should +sit, the humors of the people there, finding all passage through the +legal channel stopped, with great violence broke out another way. Some +provinces have tried their experiment, as we have tried ours; and theirs +has succeeded. They have formed a government sufficient for its +purposes, without the bustle of a revolution, or the troublesome +formality of an election. Evident necessity and tacit consent have done +the business in an instant. So well they have done it, that Lord Dunmore +(the account is among the fragments on your table) tells you that the +new institution is infinitely better obeyed than the ancient government +ever was in its most fortunate periods. Obedience is what makes +government, and not the names by which it is called: not the name of +Governor, as formerly, or Committee, as at present. This new government +has originated directly from the peo<a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" title="129" class="pagenum"></a>ple, and was not transmitted +through any of the ordinary artificial media of a positive constitution. +It was not a manufacture ready formed, and transmitted to them in that +condition from England. The evil arising from hence is this: that the +colonists having once found the possibility of enjoying the advantages +of order in the midst of a struggle for liberty, such struggles will not +henceforward seem so terrible to the settled and sober part of mankind +as they had appeared before the trial.</p> + +<p>Pursuing the same plan of punishing by the denial of the exercise of +government to still greater lengths, we wholly abrogated the ancient +government of Massachusetts. We were confident that the first feeling, +if not the very prospect of anarchy, would instantly enforce a complete +submission. The experiment was tried. A new, strange, unexpected face of +things appeared. Anarchy is found tolerable. A vast province has now +subsisted, and subsisted in a considerable degree of health and vigor, +for near a twelvemonth, without governor, without public council, +without judges, without executive magistrates. How long it will continue +in this state, or what may arise out of this unheard-of situation, how +can the wisest of us conjecture? Our late experience has taught us that +many of those fundamental principles formerly believed infallible are +either not of the importance they were imagined to be, or that we have +not at all adverted to some other far more important and far more +powerful principles which entirely overrule those we had considered as +omnipotent. I am much against any further experiments which tend to put +to the proof any more of these allowed opinions which contribute so much +to the public tranquillity. In <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" title="130" class="pagenum"></a>effect, we suffer as much at home by +this loosening of all ties, and this concussion of all established +opinions, as we do abroad. For, in order to prove that the Americans +have no right to their liberties, we are every day endeavoring to +subvert the maxims which preserve the whole spirit of our own. To prove +that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate +the value of freedom itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry +advantage over them in debate, without attacking some of those +principles, or deriding some of those feelings, for which our ancestors +have shed their blood.</p> + +<p>But, Sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious experiments, I do not +mean to preclude the fullest inquiry. Far from it. Far from deciding on +a sudden or partial view, I would patiently go round and round the +subject, and survey it minutely in every possible aspect. Sir, if I were +capable of engaging you to an equal attention, I would state, that, as +far as I am capable of discerning, there are but three ways of +proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit which prevails in your +colonies and disturbs your government. These are,—to change that +spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the causes,—to prosecute it, as +criminal,—or to comply with it, as necessary. I would not be guilty of +an imperfect enumeration; I can think of but these three. Another has, +indeed, been started,—that of giving up the colonies; but it met so +slight a reception that I do not think myself obliged to dwell a great +while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally of anger, like the +frowardness of peevish children, who, when they cannot get all they +would have, are resolved to take nothing.</p> + +<p>The first of these plans—to change the spirit, as in<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" title="131" class="pagenum"></a>convenient, by +removing the causes—I think is the most like a systematic proceeding. +It is radical in its principle; but it is attended with great +difficulties: some of them little short, as I conceive, of +impossibilities. This will appear by examining into the plans which have +been proposed.</p> + +<p>As the growing population of the colonies is evidently one cause of +their resistance, it was last session mentioned in both Houses, by men +of weight, and received not without applause, that, in order to check +this evil, it would be proper for the crown to make no further grants of +land. But to this scheme there are two objections. The first, that there +is already so much unsettled land in private hands as to afford room for +an immense future population, although the crown not only withheld its +grants, but annihilated its soil. If this be the case, then the only +effect of this avarice of desolation, this hoarding of a royal +wilderness, would be to raise the value of the possessions in the hands +of the great private monopolists, without any adequate check to the +growing and alarming mischief of population.</p> + +<p>But if you stopped your grants, what would be the consequence? The +people would occupy without grants. They have already so occupied in +many places. You cannot station garrisons in every part of these +deserts. If you drive the people from one place, they will carry on +their annual tillage, and remove with their flocks and herds to another. +Many of the people in the back settlements are already little attached +to particular situations. Already they have topped the Appalachian +mountains. From thence they behold before them an immense plain, one +vast, rich, level meadow: a square of five hundred miles. Over <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" title="132" class="pagenum"></a>this +they would wander without a possibility of restraint; they would change +their manners with the habits of their life; would soon forget a +government by which they were disowned; would become hordes of English +Tartars, and, pouring down upon your unfortified frontiers a fierce and +irresistible cavalry, become masters of your governors and your +counsellors, your collectors and comptrollers, and of all the slaves +that adhered to them. Such would, and, in no long time, must be, the +effect of attempting to forbid as a crime, and to suppress as an evil, +the command and blessing of Providence, "Increase and multiply." Such +would be the happy result of an endeavor to keep as a lair of wild +beasts that earth which God by an express charter has given to the +children of men. Far different, and surely much wiser, has been our +policy hitherto. Hitherto we have invited our people, by every kind of +bounty, to fixed establishments. We have invited the husbandman to look +to authority for his title. We have taught him piously to believe in the +mysterious virtue of wax and parchment. We have thrown each tract of +land, as it was peopled, into districts, that the ruling power should +never be wholly out of sight. We have settled all we could; and we have +carefully attended every settlement with government.</p> + +<p>Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the reasons I +have just given, I think this new project of hedging in population to be +neither prudent nor practicable.</p> + +<p>To impoverish the colonies in general, and in particular to arrest the +noble course of their marine enterprises, would be a more easy task. I +freely confess it. We have shown a disposition to a system of <a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" title="133" class="pagenum"></a>this +kind,—a disposition even to continue the restraint after the +offence,—looking on ourselves as rivals to our colonies, and persuaded +that of course we must gain all that they shall lose. Much mischief we +may certainly do. The power inadequate to all other things is often more +than sufficient for this. I do not look on the direct and immediate +power of the colonies to resist our violence as very formidable. In +this, however, I may be mistaken. But when I consider that we have +colonies for no purpose but to be serviceable to us, it seems to my poor +understanding a little preposterous to make them unserviceable, in order +to keep them obedient. It is, in truth, nothing more than the old, and, +as I thought, exploded problem of tyranny, which proposes to beggar its +subjects into submission. But remember, when you have completed your +system of impoverishment, that Nature still proceeds in her ordinary +course; that discontent will increase with misery; and that there are +critical moments in the fortune of all states, when they who are too +weak to contribute to your prosperity may be strong enough to complete +your ruin. <i>Spoliatis arma supersunt</i>.</p> + +<p>The temper and character which prevail in our colonies are, I am afraid, +unalterable by any human art. We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of +this fierce people, and persuade them that they are not sprung from a +nation in whose veins the blood of freedom circulates. The language in +which they would hear you tell them this tale would detect the +imposition; your speech would betray you. An Englishman is the unfittest +person on earth to argue another Englishman into slavery.</p> + +<p>I think it is nearly as little in our power to change <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" title="134" class="pagenum"></a>their republican +religion as their free descent, or to substitute the Roman Catholic as a +penalty, or the Church of England as an improvement. The mode of +inquisition and dragooning is going out of fashion in the Old World, and +I should not confide much to their efficacy in the New. The education of +the Americans is also on the same unalterable bottom with their +religion. You cannot persuade them to burn their books of curious +science, to banish their lawyers from their courts of law, or to quench +the lights of their assemblies by refusing to choose those persons who +are best read in their privileges. It would be no less impracticable to +think of wholly annihilating the popular assemblies in which these +lawyers sit. The army, by which we must govern in their place, would be +far more chargeable to us, not quite so effectual, and perhaps, in the +end, full as difficult to be kept in obedience.</p> + +<p>With regard to the high aristocratic spirit of Virginia and the southern +colonies, it has been proposed, I know, to reduce it by declaring a +general enfranchisement of their slaves. This project has had its +advocates and panegyrists; yet I never could argue myself into any +opinion of it. Slaves are often much attached to their masters. A +general wild offer of liberty would not always be accepted. History +furnishes few instances of it. It is sometimes as hard to persuade +slaves to be free as it is to compel freemen to be slaves; and in this +auspicious scheme we should have both these pleasing tasks on our hands +at once. But when we talk of enfranchisement, do we not perceive that +the American master may enfranchise, too, and arm servile hands in +defence of freedom?—a measure to which other people have <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" title="135" class="pagenum"></a>had recourse +more than once, and not without success, in a desperate situation of +their affairs.</p> + +<p>Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and dull as all men are +from slavery, must they not a little suspect the offer of freedom from +that very nation which has sold them to their present masters,—from +that nation, one of whose causes of quarrel with those masters is their +refusal to deal any more in that inhuman traffic? An offer of freedom +from England would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an African +vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of Virginia or +Carolina, with a cargo of three hundred Angola negroes. It would be +curious to see the Guinea captain attempting at the same instant to +publish his proclamation of liberty and to advertise his sale of slaves.</p> + +<p>But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got over. The ocean +remains. You cannot pump this dry; and as long as it continues in its +present bed, so long all the causes which weaken authority by distance +will continue.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span style="margin-left: -.5em;">"Ye Gods! annihilate but space and time,<br /></span> +<span>And make two lovers happy,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">was a pious and passionate prayer,—but just as reasonable as many of +the serious wishes of very grave and solemn politicians.</p> + +<p>If, then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any alterative +course for changing the moral causes (and not quite easy to remove the +natural) which produce prejudices irreconcilable to the late exercise of +our authority, but that the spirit infallibly will continue, and, +continuing, will produce such effects as now embarrass us,—the second +mode under consideration is, to prosecute that spirit in its overt acts, +as <i>criminal</i>.<a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" title="136" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>At this proposition I must pause a moment. The thing seems a great deal +too big for my ideas of jurisprudence. It should seem, to my way of +conceiving such matters, that there is a very wide difference, in reason +and policy, between the mode of proceeding on the irregular conduct of +scattered individuals, or even of bands of men, who disturb order within +the state, and the civil dissensions which may, from time to time, on +great questions, agitate the several communities which compose a great +empire. It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary +ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know +the method of drawing up an indictment against an whole people. I cannot +insult and ridicule the feelings of millions of my fellow-creatures as +Sir Edward Coke insulted one excellent individual (Sir Walter Raleigh) +at the bar. I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies, +intrusted with magistracies of great authority and dignity, and charged +with the safety of their fellow-citizens, upon the very same title that +I am. I really think that for wise men this is not judicious, for sober +men not decent, for minds tinctured with humanity not mild and merciful.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an empire, as distinguished +from a single state or kingdom. But my idea of it is this: that an +empire is the aggregate of many states under one common head, whether +this head be a monarch or a presiding republic. It does, in such +constitutions, frequently happen (and nothing but the dismal, cold, dead +uniformity of servitude can prevent its happening) that the subordinate +parts have many local privileges and immunities. Between these +privileges and the su<a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" title="137" class="pagenum"></a>preme common authority the line may be extremely +nice. Of course disputes, often, too, very bitter disputes, and much ill +blood, will arise. But though every privilege is an exemption (in the +case) from the ordinary exercise of the supreme authority, it is no +denial of it. The claim of a privilege seems rather, <i>ex vi termini</i>, to +imply a superior power: for to talk of the privileges of a state or of a +person who has no superior is hardly any better than speaking nonsense. +Now in such unfortunate quarrels among the component parts of a great +political union of communities, I can scarcely conceive anything more +completely imprudent than for the head of the empire to insist, that if +any privilege is pleaded against his will or his acts, that his whole +authority is denied,—instantly to proclaim rebellion, to beat to arms, +and to put the offending provinces under the ban. Will not this, Sir, +very soon teach the provinces to make no distinctions on their part? +Will it not teach them that the government against which a claim of +liberty is tantamount to high treason is a government to which +submission is equivalent to slavery? It may not always be quite +convenient to impress dependent communities with such an idea.</p> + +<p>We are, indeed, in all disputes with the colonies, by the necessity of +things, the judge. It is true, Sir. But I confess that the character of +judge in my own cause is a thing that frightens me. Instead of filling +me with pride, I am exceedingly humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a +stern, assured judicial confidence, until I find myself in something +more like a judicial character. I must have these hesitations as long as +I am compelled to recollect, that, in my little reading upon such +contests as these, the sense of <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" title="138" class="pagenum"></a>mankind has at least as often decided +against the superior as the subordinate power. Sir, let me add, too, +that the opinion of my having some abstract right in my favor would not +put me much at my ease in passing sentence, unless I could be sure that +there were no rights which, in their exercise under certain +circumstances, were not the most odious of all wrongs and the most +vexatious of all injustice. Sir, these considerations have great weight +with me, when I find things so circumstanced that I see the same party +at once a civil litigant against me in a point of right and a culprit +before me, while I sit as criminal judge on acts of his whose moral +quality is to be decided upon the merits of that very litigation. Men +are every now and then put, by the complexity of human affairs, into +strange situations; but justice is the same, let the judge be in what +situation he will.</p> + +<p>There is, Sir, also a circumstance which convinces me that this mode of +criminal proceeding is not (at least in the present stage of our +contest) altogether expedient,—which is nothing less than the conduct +of those very persons who have seemed to adopt that mode, by lately +declaring a rebellion in Massachusetts Bay, as they had formerly +addressed to have traitors brought hither, under an act of Henry the +Eighth, for trial. For, though rebellion is declared, it is not +proceeded against as such; nor have any steps been taken towards the +apprehension or conviction of any individual offender, either on our +late or our former address; but modes of public coercion have been +adopted, and such as have much more resemblance to a sort of qualified +hostility towards an independent power than the punishment of rebellious +subjects.<a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" title="139" class="pagenum"></a> All this seems rather inconsistent; but it shows how +difficult it is to apply these juridical ideas to our present case.</p> + +<p>In this situation, let us seriously and coolly ponder. What is it we +have got by all our menaces, which have been many and ferocious? What +advantage have we derived from the penal laws we have passed, and which, +for the time, have been severe and numerous? What advances have we made +towards our object, by the sending of a force, which, by land and sea, +is no contemptible strength? Has the disorder abated? Nothing +less.—When I see things in this situation, after such confident hopes, +bold promises, and active exertions, I cannot, for my life, avoid a +suspicion that the plan itself is not correctly right.</p> + +<p>If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit of American liberty +be, for the greater part, or rather entirely, impracticable,—if the +ideas of criminal process be inapplicable, or, if applicable, are in the +highest degree inexpedient, what way yet remains? No way is open, but +the third and last,—to comply with the American spirit as necessary, +or, if you please, to submit, to it as a necessary evil.</p> + +<p>If we adopt this mode, if we mean to conciliate and concede, let us see +of what nature the concession ought to be. To ascertain the nature of +our concession, we must look at their complaint. The colonies complain +that they have not the characteristic mark and seal of British freedom. +They complain that they are taxed in a Parliament in which they are not +represented. If you mean to satisfy them at all, you must satisfy them +with regard to this complaint. If you mean to please any people, you +must give them the boon which they ask,—not what you may think <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" title="140" class="pagenum"></a>better +for them, but of a kind totally different. Such an act may be a wise +regulation, but it is no concession; whereas our present theme is the +mode of giving satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Sir, I think you must perceive that I am resolved this day to have +nothing at all to do with the question of the right of taxation. Some +gentlemen startle,—but it is true: I put it totally out of the +question. It is less than nothing in my consideration. I do not indeed +wonder, nor will you, Sir, that gentlemen of profound learning are fond +of displaying it on this profound subject. But my consideration is +narrow, confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the question. I do +not examine whether the giving away a man's money be a power excepted +and reserved out of the general trust of government, and how far all +mankind, in all forms of polity, are entitled to an exercise of that +right by the charter of Nature,—or whether, on the contrary, a right of +taxation is necessarily involved in the general principle of +legislation, and inseparable from the ordinary supreme power. These are +deep questions, where great names militate against each other, where +reason is perplexed, and an appeal to authorities only thickens the +confusion: for high and reverend authorities lift up their heads on both +sides, and there is no sure footing in the middle. This point is the +<i>great Serbonian bog, betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, where armies +whole have sunk</i>. I do not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though +in such respectable company. The question with me is, not whether you +have a right to render your people miserable, but whether it is not your +interest to make them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I <i>may</i> +do, but what hu<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" title="141" class="pagenum"></a>manity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. Is a +politic act the worse for being a generous one? Is no concession proper, +but that which is made from your want of right to keep what you grant? +Or does it lessen the grace or dignity of relaxing in the exercise of an +odious claim, because you have your evidence-room full of titles, and +your magazines stuffed with arms to enforce them? What signify all those +titles and all those arms? Of what avail are they, when the reason of +the thing tells me that the assertion of my title is the loss of my +suit, and that I could do nothing but wound myself by the use of my own +weapons?</p> + +<p>Such is steadfastly my opinion of the absolute necessity of keeping up +the concord of this empire by a unity of spirit, though in a diversity +of operations, that, if I were sure the colonists had, at their leaving +this country, sealed a regular compact of servitude, that they had +solemnly abjured all the rights of citizens, that they had made a vow to +renounce all ideas of liberty for them and their posterity to all +generations, yet I should hold myself obliged to conform to the temper I +found universally prevalent in my own day, and to govern two million of +men, impatient of servitude, on the principles of freedom. I am not +determining a point of law; I am restoring tranquillity: and the general +character and situation of a people must determine what sort of +government is fitted for them. That point nothing else can or ought to +determine.</p> + +<p>My idea, therefore, without considering whether we yield as matter of +right or grant as matter of favor, is, <i>to admit the people of our +colonies into an interest in the Constitution</i>, and, by recording that +ad<a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" title="142" class="pagenum"></a>mission in the journals of Parliament, to give them as strong an +assurance as the nature of the thing will admit that we mean forever to +adhere to that solemn declaration of systematic indulgence.</p> + +<p>Some years ago, the repeal of a revenue act, upon its understood +principle, might have served to show that we intended an unconditional +abatement of the exercise of a taxing power. Such a measure was then +sufficient to remove all suspicion and to give perfect content. But +unfortunate events since that time may make something further +necessary,—and not more necessary for the satisfaction of the colonies +than for the dignity and consistency of our own future proceedings.</p> + +<p>I have taken a very incorrect measure of the disposition of the House, +if this proposal in itself would be received with dislike. I think, Sir, +we have few American financiers. But our misfortune is, we are too +acute, we are too exquisite in our conjectures of the future, for men +oppressed with such great and present evils. The more moderate among the +opposers of Parliamentary concession freely confess that they hope no +good from taxation; but they apprehend the colonists have further views, +and if this point were conceded, they would instantly attack the trade +laws. These gentlemen are convinced that this was the intention from the +beginning, and the quarrel of the Americans with taxation was no more +than a cloak and cover to this design. Such has been the language even +of a gentleman<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23" /><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor" +title="Mr. Rice.">[23]</a> of real moderation, and of a natural temper well +adjusted to fair and equal government. I am, however, Sir, not a little +surprised at this kind of discourse, whenever I hear <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" title="143" class="pagenum"></a>it; and I am the +more surprised on account of the arguments which I constantly find in +company with it, and which are often urged from the same mouths and on +the same day.</p> + +<p>For instance, when we allege that it is against reason to tax a people +under so many restraints in trade as the Americans, the noble lord<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24" /><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor" +title="Lord North.">[24]</a> +in the blue riband shall tell you that the restraints on trade are +futile and useless, of no advantage to us, and of no burden to those on +whom they are imposed,—that the trade to America is not secured by the +Acts of Navigation, but by the natural and irresistible advantage of a +commercial preference.</p> + +<p>Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture of the debate. But +when strong internal circumstances are urged against the taxes,—when +the scheme is dissected,—when experience and the nature of things are +brought to prove, and do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an +effective revenue from the colonies,—when these things are pressed, or +rather press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of colony taxes to +a clear admission of the futility of the scheme,—then, Sir, the +sleeping trade laws revive from their trance, and this useless taxation +is to be kept sacred, not for its own sake, but as a counter-guard and +security of the laws of trade.</p> + +<p>Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are mischievous in order to +preserve trade laws that are useless. Such is the wisdom of our plan in +both its members. They are separately given up as of no value; and yet +one is always to be defended for the sake of the other. But I cannot +agree with the noble lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence he seems to +<a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" title="144" class="pagenum"></a>have borrowed these ideas concerning the inutility of the trade laws. +For, without idolizing them, I am sure they are still, in many ways, of +great use to us; and in former times they have been of the greatest. +They do confine, and they do greatly narrow, the market for the +Americans. But my perfect conviction of this does not help me in the +least to discern how the revenue laws form any security whatsoever to +the commercial regulations,—or that these commercial regulations are +the true ground of the quarrel,—or that the giving way, in any one +instance, of authority is to lose all that may remain unconceded.</p> + +<p>One fact is clear and indisputable: the public and avowed origin of this +quarrel was on taxation. This quarrel has, indeed, brought on new +disputes on new questions, but certainly the least bitter, and the +fewest of all, on the trade laws. To judge which of the two be the real, +radical cause of quarrel, we have to see whether the commercial dispute +did, in order of time, precede the dispute on taxation. There is not a +shadow of evidence for it. Next, to enable us to judge whether at this +moment a dislike to the trade laws be the real cause of quarrel, it is +absolutely necessary to put the taxes out of the question by a repeal. +See how the Americans act in this position, and then you will be able to +discern correctly what is the true object of the controversy, or whether +any controversy at all will remain. Unless you consent to remove this +cause of difference, it is impossible, with decency, to assert that the +dispute is not upon what it is avowed to be. And I would, Sir, recommend +to your serious consideration, whether it be prudent to form a rule for +punishing people, not on their own acts, but on your conjectures. Surely +it is preposterous, at the <a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" title="145" class="pagenum"></a>very best. It is not justifying your anger +by their misconduct, but it is converting your ill-will into their +delinquency.</p> + +<p>But the colonies will go further.—Alas! alas! when will this +speculating against fact and reason end? What will quiet these panic +fears which we entertain of the hostile effect of a conciliatory +conduct? Is it true that no case can exist in which it is proper for the +sovereign to accede to the desires of his discontented subjects? Is +there anything peculiar in this case, to make a rule for itself? Is all +authority of course lost, when it is not pushed to the extreme? Is it a +certain maxim, that, the fewer causes of dissatisfaction are left by +government, the more the subject will be inclined to resist and rebel?</p> + +<p>All these objections being in fact no more than suspicions, conjectures, +divinations, formed in defiance of fact and experience, they did not, +Sir, discourage me from entertaining the idea of a conciliatory +concession, founded on the principles which I have just stated.</p> + +<p>In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavored to put myself in that +frame of mind which was the most natural and the most reasonable, and +which was certainly the most probable means of securing me from all +error. I set out with a perfect distrust of my own abilities, a total +renunciation of every speculation of my own, and with a profound +reverence for the wisdom of our ancestors, who have left us the +inheritance of so happy a Constitution and so flourishing an empire, +and, what is a thousand times more valuable, the treasury of the maxims +and principles which formed the one and obtained the other.</p> + +<p>During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the Aus<a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" title="146" class="pagenum"></a>trian family, +whenever they were at a loss in the Spanish councils, it was common for +their statesmen to say that they ought to consult the genius of Philip +the Second. The genius of Philip the Second might mislead them; and the +issue of their affairs showed that they had not chosen the most perfect +standard. But, Sir, I am sure that I shall not be misled, when, in a +case of constitutional difficulty, I consult the genius of the English +Constitution. Consulting at that oracle, (it was with all due humility +and piety,) I found four capital examples in a similar case before me: +those of Ireland, Wales, Chester, and Durham.</p> + +<p>Ireland, before the English conquest, though never governed by a +despotic power, had no Parliament. How far the English Parliament itself +was at that time modelled according to the present form is disputed +among antiquarians. But we have all the reason in the world to be +assured, that a form of Parliament, such as England then enjoyed, she +instantly communicated to Ireland; and we are equally sure that almost +every successive improvement in constitutional liberty, as fast as it +was made here, was transmitted thither. The feudal baronage, and the +feudal knighthood, the roots of our primitive Constitution, were early +transplanted into that soil, and grew and flourished there. Magna +Charta, if it did not give us originally the House of Commons, gave us +at least an House of Commons of weight and consequence. But your +ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to the feast of Magna +Charta. Ireland was made immediately a partaker. This benefit of English +laws and liberties, I confess, was not at first extended to <i>all</i> +Ireland. Mark the consequence. English authority and English liberty had +exactly the same <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" title="147" class="pagenum"></a>boundaries. Your standard could never be advanced an +inch before your privileges. Sir John Davies shows beyond a doubt, that +the refusal of a general communication of these rights was the true +cause why Ireland was five hundred years in subduing; and after the vain +projects of a military government, attempted in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, it was soon discovered that nothing could make that country +English, in civility and allegiance, but your laws and your forms of +legislature. It was not English arms, but the English Constitution, that +conquered Ireland. From that time, Ireland has ever had a general +Parliament, as she had before a partial Parliament. You changed the +people, you altered the religion, but you never touched the form or the +vital substance of free government in that kingdom. You deposed kings; +you restored them; you altered the succession to theirs, as well as to +your own crown; but you never altered their Constitution, the principle +of which was respected by usurpation, restored with the restoration of +monarchy, and established, I trust, forever by the glorious Revolution. +This has made Ireland the great and flourishing kingdom that it is, and, +from a disgrace and a burden intolerable to this nation, has rendered +her a principal part of our strength and ornament. This country cannot +be said to have ever formally taxed her. The irregular things done in +the confusion of mighty troubles, and on the hinge of great revolutions, +even if all were done that is said to have been done, form no example. +If they have any effect in argument, they make an exception to prove the +rule. None of your own liberties could stand a moment, if the casual +deviations from them, at such times, were suffered to be used as proofs +of <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" title="148" class="pagenum"></a>their nullity. By the lucrative amount of such casual breaches in +the Constitution, judge what the stated and fixed rule of supply has +been in that kingdom. Your Irish pensioners would starve, if they had no +other fund to live on than taxes granted by English authority. Turn your +eyes to those popular grants from whence all your great supplies are +come, and learn to respect that only source of public wealth in the +British empire.</p> + +<p>My next example is Wales. This country was said to be reduced by Henry +the Third. It was said more truly to be so by Edward the First. But +though then conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of the realm +of England. Its old Constitution, whatever that might have been, was +destroyed; and no good one was substituted in its place. The care of +that tract was put into the hands of Lords Marchers: a form of +government of a very singular kind; a strange, heterogeneous monster, +something between hostility and government: perhaps it has a sort of +resemblance, according to the modes of those times, to that of +commander-in-chief at present, to whom all civil power is granted as +secondary. The manners of the Welsh nation followed the genius of the +government: the people were ferocious, restive, savage, and +uncultivated; sometimes composed, never pacified. Wales, within itself, +was in perpetual disorder; and it kept the frontier of England in +perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the state there were none. Wales +was only known to England by incursion and invasion.</p> + +<p>Sir, during that state of things, Parliament was not idle. They +attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of the Welsh by all sorts of +rigorous laws. They prohibited by statute the sending all sorts of arms +into<a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" title="149" class="pagenum"></a> Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation (with something more of +doubt on the legality) the sending arms to America. They disarmed the +Welsh by statute, as you attempted (but still with more question on the +legality) to disarm New England by an instruction. They made an act to +drag offenders from Wales into England for trial, as you have done (but +with more hardship) with regard to America. By another act, where one of +the parties was an Englishman, they ordained that his trial should be +always by English. They made acts to restrain trade, as you do; and they +prevented the Welsh from the use of fairs and markets, as you do the +Americans from fisheries and foreign ports. In short, when the +statute-book was not quite so much swelled as it is now, you find no +less than fifteen acts of penal regulation on the subject of Wales.</p> + +<p>Here we rub our hands,—A fine body of precedents for the authority of +Parliament and the use of it!—I admit it fully; and pray add likewise +to these precedents, that all the while Wales rid this kingdom like an +<i>incubus</i>; that it was an unprofitable and oppressive burden; and that +an Englishman travelling in that country could not go six yards from the +highroad without being murdered.</p> + +<p>The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, it was not until after two +hundred years discovered, that, by an eternal law, Providence had +decreed vexation to violence, and poverty to rapine. Your ancestors did, +however, at length open their eyes to the ill husbandry of injustice. +They found that the tyranny of a free people could of all tyrannies the +least be endured, and that laws made against an whole nation were not +the most effectual methods for securing its <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" title="150" class="pagenum"></a>obedience. Accordingly, in +the twenty-seventh year of Henry the Eighth the course was entirely +altered. With a preamble stating the entire and perfect rights of the +crown of England, it gave to the Welsh all the rights and privileges of +English subjects. A political order was established; the military power +gave way to the civil; the marches were turned into counties. But that a +nation should have a right to English liberties, and yet no share at all +in the fundamental security of these liberties,—the grant of their own +property,—seemed a thing so incongruous, that eight years after, that +is, in the thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete and not +ill-proportioned representation by counties and boroughs was bestowed +upon Wales by act of Parliament. From that moment, as by a charm, the +tumults subsided; obedience was restored; peace, order, and civilization +followed in the train of liberty. When the day-star of the English +Constitution had arisen in their hearts, all was harmony within and +without:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Simul alba nautis<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stella refulsit,<br /></span> +<span>Defluit saxis agitatus humor,<br /></span> +<span>Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes,<br /></span> +<span>Et minax (quod sic voluere) ponto<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Unda recumbit.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The very same year the County Palatine of Chester received the same +relief from its oppressions, and the same remedy to its disorders. +Before this time Chester was little less distempered than Wales. The +inhabitants, without rights themselves, were the fittest to destroy the +rights of others; and from thence Richard the Second drew the standing +army of archers with which for a time he oppressed England. The <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" title="151" class="pagenum"></a>people +of Chester applied to Parliament in a petition penned as I shall read to +you.</p> + +<p>"To the king our sovereign lord, in most humble wise shown unto your +most excellent Majesty, the inhabitants of your Grace's County Palatine +of Chester: That where the said County Palatine of Chester is and hath +been alway hitherto exempt, excluded, and separated out and from your +high court of Parliament, to have any knights and burgesses within the +said court; by reason whereof the said inhabitants have hitherto +sustained manifold disherisons, losses, and damages, as well in their +lands, goods, and bodies, as in the good, civil, and politic governance +and maintenance of the common wealth of their said country: And +forasmuch as the said inhabitants have always hitherto been bound by the +acts and statutes made and ordained by your said Highness, and your most +noble progenitors, by authority of the said court, as far forth as other +counties, cities, and boroughs have been, that have had their knights +and burgesses within your said court of Parliament, and yet have had +neither knight no burgess there for the said County Palatine; the said +inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentimes touched and grieved +with acts and statutes made within the said court, as well derogatory +unto the most ancient jurisdictions, liberties, and privileges of your +said County Palatine, as prejudicial unto the common wealth, quietness, +rest, and peace of your Grace's most bounden subjects inhabiting within +the same."</p> + +<p>What did Parliament with this audacious address?—Reject it as a libel? +Treat it as an affront to government? Spurn it as a derogation from the +rights of legislature? Did they toss it over the table? Did <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" title="152" class="pagenum"></a>they burn +it by the hands of the common hangman?—They took the petition of +grievance, all rugged as it was, without softening or temperament, +unpurged of the original bitterness and indignation of complaint; they +made it the very preamble to their act of redress, and consecrated its +principle to all ages in the sanctuary of legislation.</p> + +<p>Here is my third example. It was attended with the success of the two +former. Chester, civilized as well as Wales, has demonstrated that +freedom, and not servitude, is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not +atheism, is the true remedy for superstition. Sir, this pattern of +Chester was followed in the reign of Charles the Second with regard to +the County Palatine of Durham, which is my fourth example. This county +had long lain out of the pale of free legislation. So scrupulously was +the example of Chester followed, that the style of the preamble is +nearly the came with that of the Chester act; and, without affecting the +abstract extent of the authority of Parliament, it recognizes the equity +of not suffering any considerable district, in which the British +subjects may act as a body, to be taxed without their own voice in the +grant.</p> + +<p>Now if the doctrines of policy contained in these preambles, and the +force of these examples in the acts of Parliament, avail anything, what +can be said against applying them with regard to America? Are not the +people of America as much Englishmen as the Welsh? The preamble of the +act of Henry the Eighth says, the Welsh speak a language no way +resembling that of his Majesty's English subjects. Are the Americana not +as numerous? If we may trust the learned and accurate Judge Barrington's +account of North Wales, <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" title="153" class="pagenum"></a>and take that as a standard to measure the +rest, there is no comparison. The people cannot amount to above 200,000: +not a tenth part of the number in the colonies. Is America in rebellion? +Wales was hardly ever free from it. Have you attempted to govern America +by penal statutes? You made fifteen for Wales. But your legislative +authority is perfect with regard to America: was it less perfect in +Wales, Chester, and Durham? But America is virtually represented. What! +does the electric force of virtual representation more easily pass over +the Atlantic than pervade Wales, which lies in your neighborhood? or +than Chester and Durham, surrounded by abundance of representation that +is actual and palpable? But, Sir, your ancestors thought this sort of +virtual representation, however ample, to be totally insufficient for +the freedom of the inhabitants of territories that are so near, and +comparatively so inconsiderable. How, then, can I think it sufficient +for those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely more remote?</p> + +<p>You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine that I am on the point of proposing +to you a scheme for a representation of the colonies in Parliament. +Perhaps I might be inclined to entertain some such thought; but a great +flood stops me in my course. <i>Opposuit Natura.</i> I cannot remove the +eternal barriers of the creation. The thing, in that mode, I do not know +to be possible. As I meddle with no theory, I do not absolutely assert +the impracticability of such a representation; but I do not see my way +to it; and those who have been more confident have not been more +successful. However, the arm of public benevolence is not shortened; and +there are often several means <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" title="154" class="pagenum"></a>to the same end. What Nature has +disjoined in one way wisdom may unite in another. When we cannot give +the benefit as we would wish, let us not refuse it altogether. If we +cannot give the principal, let us find a substitute. But how? where? +what substitute?</p> + +<p>Fortunately, I am not obliged, for the ways and means of this +substitute, to tax my own unproductive invention. I am not even obliged +to go to the rich treasury of the fertile framers of imaginary +commonwealths: not to the Republic of Plato, not to the Utopia of More, +not to the Oceana of Harrington. It is before me,—it is at my feet,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">"And the rude swain<br /></span> +<span>Treads daily on it with his clouted shoon."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">I only wish you to recognize, for the theory, the ancient constitutional +policy of this kingdom with regard to representation, as that policy has +been declared in acts of Parliament,—and as to the practice, to return +to that mode which an uniform experience has marked out to you as best, +and in which you walked with security, advantage, and honor, until the +year 1763.</p> + +<p>My resolutions, therefore, mean to establish the equity and justice of a +taxation of America by <i>grant</i>, and not by <i>imposition</i>; to mark the +<i>legal competency</i> of the colony assemblies for the support of their +government in peace, and for public aids in time of war; to acknowledge +that this legal competency has had a <i>dutiful and beneficial exercise</i>, +and that experience has shown <i>the benefit of their grants</i>, and <i>the +futility of Parliamentary taxation, as a method of supply</i>.</p> + +<p>These solid truths compose six fundamental propositions. There are three +more resolutions corollary to these. If you admit the first set, you can +hardly <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" title="155" class="pagenum"></a>reject the others. But if you admit the first, I shall be far +from solicitous whether you accept or refuse the last. I think these six +massive pillars will be of strength sufficient to support the temple of +British concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain of my existence, +that, if you admitted these, you would command an immediate peace, and, +with but tolerable future management, a lasting obedience in America. I +am not arrogant in this confident assurance. The propositions are all +mere matters of fact; and if they are such facts as draw irresistible +conclusions even in the stating, this is the power of truth, and not any +management of mine.</p> + +<p>Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you together, with such observations +on the motions as may tend to illustrate them, where they may want +explanation.</p> + +<p>The first is a resolution,—"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."</p> + +<p>This is a plain matter of fact, necessary to be laid down, and +(excepting the description) it is laid down in the language of the +Constitution; it is taken nearly <i>verbatim</i> from acts of Parliament.</p> + +<p>The second is like unto the first,—"That the said colonies and +plantations have been made liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, +payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by Parliament, though the +said colonies and plantations have not their knights and burgesses in +the said high court of Parliament, of their own election, to represent +the condition of <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" title="156" class="pagenum"></a>their country; by lack whereof they have been +oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies, given, granted, and +assented to, in the said court, in a manner prejudicial to the common +wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting within the +same."</p> + +<p>Is this description too hot or too cold, too strong or too weak? Does it +arrogate too much to the supreme legislature? Does it lean too much to +the claims of the people? If it runs into any of these errors, the fault +is not mine. It is the language of your own ancient acts of Parliament.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Non meus hic sermo, sed quæ præcepit Ofellus<br /></span> +<span>Rusticus, abnormis sapiens.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic, manly, home-bred sense +of this country. I did not dare to rub off a particle of the venerable +rust that rather adorns and preserves than destroys the metal. It would +be a profanation to touch with a tool the stones which construct the +sacred altar of peace. I would not violate with modern polish the +ingenuous and noble roughness of these truly constitutional materials. +Above all things, I was resolved not to be guilty of tampering,—the +odious vice of restless and unstable minds. I put my foot in the tracks +of our forefathers, where I can neither wander nor stumble. Determining +to fix articles of peace, I was resolved not to be wise beyond what was +written; I was resolved to use nothing else than the form of sound +words, to let others abound in their own sense, and carefully to abstain +from all expressions of my own. What the law has said, I say. In all +things else I am silent. I have no organ but for her words. This, if it +be not ingenious, I am sure is safe.</p> + +<p>There are, indeed, words expressive of grievance in <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" title="157" class="pagenum"></a>this second +resolution, which those who are resolved always to be in the right will +deny to contain matter of fact, as applied to the present case; although +Parliament thought them true with regard to the Counties of Chester and +Durham. They will deny that the Americans were ever "touched and +grieved" with the taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes but their +weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be some pretence for this +denial. But men may be sorely touched and deeply grieved in their +privileges, as well as in their purses. Men may lose little in property +by the act which takes away all their freedom. When a man is robbed of a +trifle on the highway, it is not the twopence lost that constitutes the +capital outrage. This is not confined to privileges. Even ancient +indulgences withdrawn, without offence on the part of those who enjoyed +such favors, operate as grievances. But were the Americans, then, not +touched and grieved by the taxes, in some measure, merely as taxes? If +so, why were they almost all either wholly repealed or exceedingly +reduced? Were they not touched and grieved even by the regulating duties +of the sixth of George the Second? Else why were the duties first +reduced to one third in 1764, and afterwards to a third of that third in +the year 1766? Were they not touched and grieved by the Stamp Act? I +shall say they were, until that tax is revived. Were they not touched +and grieved by the duties of 1767, which were likewise repealed, and +which Lord Hillsborough tells you (for the ministry) were laid contrary +to the true principle of commerce? Is not the assurance given by that +noble person to the colonies of a resolution to lay no more taxes on +them an admission that taxes would touch and grieve them?<a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" title="158" class="pagenum"></a> Is not the +resolution of the noble lord in the blue riband, now standing on your +journals, the strongest of all proofs that Parliamentary subsidies +really touched and grieved them? Else why all these changes, +modifications, repeals, assurances, and resolutions?</p> + +<p>The next proposition is,—"That, from the distance of the said colonies, +and from other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for +procuring a representation in Parliament for the said colonies."</p> + +<p>This is an assertion of a fact. I go no further on the paper; though, in +my private judgment, an useful representation is impossible; I am sure +it is not desired by them, nor ought it, perhaps, by us: but I abstain +from opinions.</p> + +<p>The fourth resolution is,—"That each of the said colonies hath within +itself a body, chosen, in part or in the whole, by the freemen, +freeholders, or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the +General Assembly, or General Court, with powers legally to raise, levy, +and assess, according to the several usages of such colonies, duties and +taxes towards defraying all sorts of public services."</p> + +<p>This competence in the colony assemblies is certain. It is proved by the +whole tenor of their acts of supply in all the assemblies, in which the +constant style of granting is, "An aid to his Majesty"; and acts +granting to the crown have regularly, for near a century, passed the +public offices without dispute. Those who have been pleased +paradoxically to deny this right, holding that none but the British +Parliament can grant to the crown, are wished to look to what is done, +not only in the colonies, but in Ireland, in one uniform, unbroken +tenor, every session. Sir, I am surprised that this doctrine should come +from<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" title="159" class="pagenum"></a> Rome of the law servants of the crown. I say, that, if the crown +could be responsible, his Majesty,—but certainly the ministers, and +even these law officers themselves, through whose hands the acts pass +biennially in Ireland, or annually in the colonies, are in an habitual +course of committing impeachable offences. What habitual offenders have +been all Presidents of the Council, all Secretaries of State, all First +Lords of Trade, all Attorneys and all Solicitors General! However, they +are safe, as no one impeaches them; and there is no ground of charge +against them, except in their own unfounded theories.</p> + +<p>The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact,—"That the said +general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies legally qualified as +aforesaid, have at sundry times freely granted several large subsidies +and public aids for his Majesty's service, according to their abilities, +when required thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal +Secretaries of State; and that their right to grant the same, and their +cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants, have been at sundry +times acknowledged by Parliament."</p> + +<p>To say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian wars, and not to +take their exertion in foreign ones, so high as the supplies in the year +1695, not to go back to their public contributions in the year 1710, I +shall begin to travel only where the journals give me light,—resolving +to deal in nothing but fact authenticated by Parliamentary record, and +to build myself wholly on that solid basis.</p> + +<p>On the 4th of April, 1748,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25" /><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor" +title="Journals of the House, Vol. XXV.">[25]</a> a committee of this House came to the +following resolution:—</p> + +<p>"<i>Resolved</i>, That it is the opinion of this commit<a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" title="160" class="pagenum"></a>tee, <i>that it is just +and reasonable</i>, that the several provinces and colonies of +Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island be +reimbursed the expenses they have been at in taking and securing to the +crown of Great Britain the island of Caps Breton and its dependencies."</p> + +<p>These expenses were immense for such colonies. They were above 200,000<i>l.</i> +sterling: money first raised and advanced on their public credit.</p> + +<p>On the 28th of January, 1756,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26" /><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor" +title="Journals of the House, Vol. XXVII.">[26]</a> a message from the king came to us, to +this effect:—"His Majesty, being sensible of the zeal and vigor with +which his faithful subjects of certain colonies in North America have +exerted themselves in defence of his Majesty's just rights and +possessions, recommends it to this House to take the same into their +consideration, and to enable his Majesty to give them such assistance as +may be <i>proper reward and encouragement</i>."</p> + +<p>On the 3d of February, 1756,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27" /><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor" +title="Ibid.">[27]</a> the House came to a suitable +resolution, expressed in words nearly the same as those of the message; +but with the further addition, that the money then voted was as an +<i>encouragement</i> to the colonies to exert themselves with vigor. It will +not be necessary to go through all the testimonies which your own +records have given to the truth of my resolutions. I will only refer you +to the places in the journals:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Vol. XXVII—16th and 19th May, 1757.</p> + +<p> Vol. XXVIII.—June 1st, 1758,—April 26th and 30th, 1759,—March + 26th and 31st, and April 28th, 1760,—Jan. 9th and 20th, 1761.</p> + +<p> Vol. XXIX.—Jan. 22d and 26th, 1762,—March 14th and 17th, 1763.</p></div> +<p><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" title="161" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of Parliament, that the +colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety. This nation has formally +acknowledged two things: first, that the colonies had gone beyond their +abilities, Parliament having thought it necessary to reimburse them; +secondly, that they had acted legally and laudably in their grants of +money, and their maintenance of troops, since the compensation is +expressly given as reward and encouragement. Reward is not bestowed for +acts that are unlawful; and encouragement is not held out to things that +deserve reprehension. My resolution, therefore, does nothing more than +collect into one proposition what is scattered through your journals. I +give you nothing but your own; and you cannot refuse in the gross what +you have so often acknowledged in detail. The admission of this, which +will be so honorable to them and to you, will, indeed, be mortal to all +the miserable stories by which the passions of the misguided people have +been engaged in an unhappy system. The people heard, indeed, from the +beginning of these disputes, one thing continually dinned in their ears: +that reason and justice demanded, that the Americans, who paid no taxes, +should be compelled to contribute. How did that fact, of their paying +nothing, stand, when the taxing system began? When Mr. Grenville began +to form his system of American revenue, he stated in this House that the +colonies were then in debt two million six hundred thousand pounds +sterling money, and was of opinion they would discharge that debt in +four years. On this state, those untaxed people were actually subject to +the payment of taxes to the amount of six hundred and fifty thousand a +year. In fact, however, Mr.<a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" title="162" class="pagenum"></a> Grenville was mistaken. The funds given for +sinking the debt did not prove quite so ample as both the colonies and +he expected. The calculation was too sanguine: the reduction was not +completed till some years after, and at different times in different +colonies. However, the taxes after the war continued too great to bear +any addition, with prudence or propriety; and when the burdens imposed +in consequence of former requisitions were discharged, our tone became +too high to resort again to requisition. No colony, since that time, +ever has had any requisition whatsoever made to it.</p> + +<p>We see the sense of the crown, and the sense of Parliament, on the +productive nature of a <i>revenue by grant</i>. Now search the same journals +for the produce of the <i>revenue by imposition</i>. Where is it?—let us +know the volume and the page. What is the gross, what is the net +produce? To what service is it applied? How have you appropriated its +surplus?—What! can none of the many skilful index-makers that we are +now employing find any trace of it?—Well, let them and that rest +together.—But are the journals, which say nothing of the revenue, as +silent on the discontent?—Oh, no! a child may find it. It is the +melancholy burden and blot of every page.</p> + +<p>I think, then, I am, from those journals, justified in the sixth and +last resolution, which is,—"That it hath been found by experience, that +the manner of granting the said supplies and aids by the said general +assemblies hath been more agreeable to the inhabitants of the said +colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the public service, than +the mode of giving and granting aids and subsidies in Parliament, to be +raised and paid in the said colonies."<a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" title="163" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>This makes the whole of the fundamental part of the plan. The conclusion +is irresistible. You cannot say that you were driven by any necessity to +an exercise of the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot assert that +you took on yourselves the task of imposing colony taxes, from the want +of another legal body that is competent to the purpose of supplying the +exigencies of the state without wounding the prejudices of the people. +Neither is it true, that the body so qualified, and having that +competence, had neglected the duty.</p> + +<p>The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is,—Whether you will +choose to abide by a profitable experience or a mischievous theory? +whether you choose to build on imagination or fact? whether you prefer +enjoyment or hope? satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent?</p> + +<p>If these propositions are accepted, everything which has been made to +enforce a contrary system must, I take it for granted, fall along with +it. On that ground, I have drawn the following resolution, which, when +it comes to be moved, will naturally be divided in a proper +manner:—"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the seventh +year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for +granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in +America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs, upon the +exportation from this kingdom, of coffee and cocoa-nuts, of the produce +of the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks +payable on China earthen ware exported to America; and for more +effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said +colonies and plantations.'—And also, that it may be proper to repeal an +act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, +<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" title="164" class="pagenum"></a>intituled, 'An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as +are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping, +of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town and within the harbor of +Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America.'—And +also, that it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth +year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for the +impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned +for any acts done by them, in the execution of the law, or for the +suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts +Bay, in New England.'—And also, that it may be proper to repeal an act, +made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, +intituled,' An act for the better regulating the government of the +province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England.'—And also, that it +may be proper to explain and amend an act, made in the thirty-fifth year +of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled, 'An act for the trial +of treasons committed out of the king's dominions.'"</p> + +<p>I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because (independently of +the dangerous precedent of suspending the rights of the subject during +the king's pleasure) it was passed, as I apprehend, with less +regularity, and on more partial principles, than it ought. The +corporation of Boston was not heard before it was condemned. Other +towns, full as guilty as she was, have not had their ports blocked up. +Even the Restraining Bill of the present session does not go to the +length of the Boston Port Act. The same ideas of prudence, which induced +you not to extend equal punishment to equal guilt, even when you were +punishing, induce me, who mean not to chastise, but to <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" title="165" class="pagenum"></a>reconcile, to be +satisfied with the punishment already partially inflicted.</p> + +<p>Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circumstances prevent you from +taking away the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as you have +taken away that of Massachusetts Colony, though the crown has far less +power in the two former provinces than it enjoyed in the latter, and +though the abuses have bean full as great and as flagrant in the +exempted as in the punished. The same reasons of prudence and +accommodation have weight with me in restoring the charter of +Massachusetts Bay. Besides, Sir, the act which changes the charter of +Massachusetts is in many particulars so exceptionable, that, if I did +not wish absolutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter it; +as several of its provisions tend to the subversion of all public and +private justice. Such, among others, is the power in the governor to +change the sheriff at his pleasure, and to make a new returning officer +for every special cause. It is shameful to behold such a regulation +standing among English laws.</p> + +<p>The act for bringing persons accused of committing murder under the +orders of government to England for trial is but temporary. That act has +calculated the probable duration of our quarrel with the colonies, and +is accommodated to that supposed duration. I would hasten the happy +moment of reconciliation, and therefore must, on my principle, get rid +of that most justly obnoxious act.</p> + +<p>The act of Henry the Eighth for the trial of treasons I do not mean to +take away, but to confine it to its proper bounds and original +intention: to make it expressly for trial of treasons (and the greatest +treasons may be committed) in places where the jurisdiction of the crown +does not extend.<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" title="166" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Having guarded the privileges of local legislature, I would next secure +to the colonies a fair and unbiased judicature; for which purpose, Sir, +I propose the following resolution:—"That, from the time when the +general assembly, or general court, of any colony or plantation in North +America shall have appointed, by act of assembly duly confirmed, a +settled salary to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of +the superior courts, it may be proper that the said chief justice and +other judges of the superior courts of such colony shall hold his and +their office and offices during their good behavior, and shall not be +removed therefrom, but when the said removal shall be adjudged by his +Majesty in council, upon a hearing on complaint from the general +assembly, or on a complaint from the governor, or the council, or the +house of representatives, severally, of the colony in which the said +chief justice and other judges have exercised the said offices."</p> + +<p>The next resolution relates to the courts of admiralty. It is +this:—"That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty or +vice-admiralty, authorized by the 15th chapter of the 4th George the +Third, in such a manner as to make the same more commodious to those who +sue or are sued in the said courts, and to provide for the more decent +maintenance of the judges of the same."</p> + +<p>These courts I do not wish to take away: they are in themselves proper +establishments. This court is one of the capital securities of the Act +of Navigation. The extent of its jurisdiction, indeed, has been +increased; but this is altogether as proper, and is, indeed, on many +accounts, more eligible, where new powers were wanted, than a court +absolutely new.<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" title="167" class="pagenum"></a> But courts incommodiously situated, in effect, deny +justice; and a court partaking in the fruits of its own condemnation is +a robber. The Congress complain, and complain justly, of this +grievance.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28" /><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor" +title="The Solicitor-General informed Mr. B., when the resolutions were separately moved, that the +grievance of the judges partaking of the profits of the seizure had been redressed by office; +accordingly the resolution was amended.">[28]</a></p> + +<p>These are the three consequential propositions. I have thought of two or +three more; but they come rather too near detail, and to the province of +executive government, which I wish Parliament always to superintend, +never to assume. If the first six are granted, congruity will carry the +latter three. If not, the things that remain unrepealed will be, I hope, +rather unseemly incumbrances on the building than very materially +detrimental to its strength and stability.</p> + +<p>Here, Sir, I should close, but that I plainly perceive some objections +remain, which I ought, if possible, to remove. The first will be, that, +in resorting to the doctrine of our ancestors, as contained in the +preamble to the Chester act, I prove too much: that the grievance from a +want of representation, stated in that preamble, goes to the whole of +legislation as well as to taxation; and that the colonies, grounding +themselves upon that doctrine, will apply it to all parts of legislative +authority.</p> + +<p>To this objection, with all possible deference and humility, and wishing +as little as any man living to impair the smallest particle of our +supreme authority, I answer, that <i>the words are the words of +Parliament, and not mine</i>; and that all false and inconclusive +inferences drawn from them are not mine; for I heart<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" title="168" class="pagenum"></a>ily disclaim any +such inference. I have chosen the words of an act of Parliament, which +Mr. Grenville, surely a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate +for the sovereignty of Parliament, formerly moved to have read at your +table in confirmation of his tenets. It is true that Lord Chatham +considered these preambles as declaring strongly in favor of his +opinions. He was a no less powerful advocate for the privileges of the +Americans. Ought I not from hence to presume that these preambles are as +favorable as possible to both, when properly understood: favorable both +to the rights of Parliament, and to the privilege of the dependencies of +this crown? But, Sir, the object of grievance in my resolution I have +not taken from the Chester, but from the Durham act, which confines the +hardship of want of representation to the case of subsidies, and which +therefore falls in exactly with the case of the colonies. But whether +the unrepresented counties were <i>de jure</i> or <i>de facto</i> bound the +preambles do not accurately distinguish; nor, indeed, was it necessary: +for, whether <i>de jure</i> or <i>de facto</i>, the legislature thought the +exercise of the power of taxing, as of right, or as of fact without +right, equally a grievance, and equally oppressive.</p> + +<p>I do not know that the colonies have, in any general way, or in any cool +hour, gone much beyond the demand of immunity in relation to taxes. It +is not fair to judge of the temper or dispositions of any man or any set +of men, when they are composed and at rest, from their conduct or their +expressions in a state of disturbance and irritation. It is, besides, a +very great mistake to imagine that mankind follow up practically any +speculative principle, either of government or of freedom, as far as it +will go in argu<a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" title="169" class="pagenum"></a>ment and logical illation. We Englishmen stop very short +of the principles upon which we support any given part of our +Constitution, or even the whole of it together. I could easily, if I had +not already tired you, give you very striking and convincing instances +of it. This is nothing but what is natural and proper. All government, +indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent +act, is founded on compromise and barter. We balance inconveniences; we +give and take; we remit some rights, that we may enjoy others; and we +choose rather to be happy citizens than subtle disputants. As we must +give away some natural liberty, to enjoy civil advantages, so we must +sacrifice some civil liberties, for the advantages to be derived from +the communion and fellowship of a great empire. But, in all fair +dealings, the thing bought must bear some proportion to the purchase +paid. None will barter away the immediate jewel of his soul. Though a +great house is apt to make slaves haughty, yet it is purchasing a part +of the artificial importance of a great empire too dear, to pay for it +all essential rights, and all the intrinsic dignity of human nature. +None of us who would not risk his life rather than fall under a +government purely arbitrary. But although there are some amongst us who +think our Constitution wants many improvements to make it a complete +system of liberty, perhaps none who are of that opinion would think it +right to aim at such improvement by disturbing his country and risking +everything that is dear to him. In every arduous enterprise, we consider +what we are to lose, as well as what we are to gain; and the more and +better stake of liberty every people possess, the less they will hazard +in a <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" title="170" class="pagenum"></a>vain attempt to make it more. These are <i>the cords of man</i>. Man +acts from adequate motives relative to his interest, and not on +metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, the great master of reasoning, +cautions us, and with great weight and propriety, against this species +of delusive geometrical accuracy in moral arguments, as the most +fallacious of all sophistry.</p> + +<p>The Americans will have no interest contrary to the grandeur and glory +of England, when they are not oppressed by the weight of it; and they +will rather be inclined to respect the acts of a superintending +legislature, when they see them the acts of that power which is itself +the security, not the rival, of their secondary importance. In this +assurance my mind most perfectly acquiesces, and I confess I feel not +the least alarm from the discontents which are to arise from putting +people at their ease; nor do I apprehend the destruction of this empire +from giving, by an act of free grace and indulgence, to two millions of +my fellow-citizens some share of those rights upon which I have always +been taught to value myself.</p> + +<p>It is said, indeed, that this power of granting, vested in American +assemblies, would dissolve the unity of the empire,—which was preserved +entire, although Wales, and Chester, and Durham were added to it. Truly, +Mr. Speaker, I do not know what this unity means; nor has it ever been +heard of, that I know, in the constitutional policy of this country. The +very idea of subordination of parts excludes this notion of simple and +undivided unity. England is the head; but she is not the head and the +members too. Ireland has ever had from the beginning a separate, but not +an independent legislature, which, far from dis<a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" title="171" class="pagenum"></a>tracting, promoted the +union of the whole. Everything was sweetly and harmoniously disposed +through both islands for the conservation of English dominion and the +communication of English liberties. I do not see that the same +principles might not be carried into twenty islands, and with the same +good effect. This is my model with regard to America, as far as the +internal circumstances of the two countries are the same. I know no +other unity of this empire than I can draw from its example during these +periods, when it seemed to my poor understanding more united than it is +now, or than it is likely to be by the present methods.</p> + +<p>But since I speak of these methods, I recollect, Mr. Speaker, almost too +late, that I promised, before I finished, to say something of the +proposition of the noble lord<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29" /><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor" +title="Lord North.">[29]</a> on the floor, which has been so lately +received, and stands on your journals. I must be deeply concerned, +whenever it is my misfortune to continue a difference with the majority +of this House. But as the reasons for that difference are my apology for +thus troubling you, suffer me to state them in a very few words. I shall +compress them into as small a body as I possibly can, having already +debated that matter at large, when the question was before the +committee.</p> + +<p>First, then, I cannot admit that proposition of a ransom by +auction,—because it is a mere project. It is a thing new, unheard of, +supported by no experience, justified by no analogy, without example of +our ancestors, or root in the Constitution. It is neither regular +Parliamentary taxation nor colony grant. <i>Experimentum in corpore vili</i> +is a good rule, <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" title="172" class="pagenum"></a>which will ever make me adverse to any trial of +experiments on what is certainly the most valuable of all subjects, the +peace of this empire.</p> + +<p>Secondly, it is an experiment which must be fatal in the end to our +Constitution. For what is it but a scheme for taxing the colonies in the +antechamber of the noble lord and his successors? To settle the quotas +and proportions in this House is clearly impossible. You, Sir, may +flatter yourself you shall sit a state auctioneer, with your hammer in +your hand, and knock down to each colony as it bids. But to settle (on +the plan laid down by the noble lord) the true proportional payment for +four or five and twenty governments, according to the absolute and the +relative wealth of each, and according to the British proportion of +wealth and burden, is a wild and chimerical notion. This new taxation +must therefore come in by the back-door of the Constitution. Each quota +must be brought to this House ready formed. You can neither add nor +alter. You must register it. You can do nothing further. For on what +grounds can you deliberate either before or after the proposition? You +cannot hear the counsel for all these provinces, quarrelling each on its +own quantity of payment, and its proportion to others. If you should +attempt it, the Committee of Provincial Ways and Means, or by whatever +other name it will delight to be called, must swallow up all the time of +Parliament.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the complaint of the colonies. +They complain that they are taxed without their consent. You answer, +that you will fix the sum at which they shall be taxed. That is, you +give them the very grievance for the remedy.<a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" title="173" class="pagenum"></a> You tell them, indeed, +that you will leave the mode to themselves. I really beg pardon; it +gives me pain to mention it; but you must be sensible that you will not +perform this part of the compact. For suppose the colonies were to lay +the duties which furnished their contingent upon the importation of your +manufactures; you know you would never suffer such a tax to be laid. You +know, too, that you would not suffer many other modes of taxation. So +that, when you come to explain yourself, it will be found that you will +neither leave to themselves the quantum nor the mode, nor indeed +anything. The whole is delusion, from one end to the other.</p> + +<p>Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction, unless it be <i>universally</i> +accepted, will plunge you into great and inextricable difficulties. In +what year of our Lord are the proportions of payments to be settled? To +say nothing of the impossibility that colony agents should have general +powers of taxing the colonies at their discretion, consider, I implore +you, that the communication by special messages and orders between these +agents and their constituents on each variation of the case, when the +parties come to contend together, and to dispute on their relative +proportions, will be a matter of delay, perplexity, and confusion, that +never can have an end.</p> + +<p>If all the colonies do not appear at the outcry, what is the condition +of those assemblies who offer, by themselves or their agents, to tax +themselves up to your ideas of their proportion? The refractory +colonies, who refuse all composition, will remain taxed only to your old +impositions, which, however grievous in principle, are trifling as to +production. The obedient colonies in this scheme are heavily taxed; the +<a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" title="174" class="pagenum"></a>refractory remain unburdened. What will you do? Will you lay new and +heavier taxes by Parliament on the disobedient? Pray consider in what +way you can do it. You are perfectly convinced, that, in the way of +taxing, you can do nothing but at the ports. Now suppose it is Virginia +that refuses to appear at your auction, while Maryland and North +Carolina bid handsomely for their ransom, and are taxed to your quota, +how will you put these colonies on a par? Will you tax the tobacco of +Virginia? If you do, you give its death-wound to your English revenue at +home, and to one of the very greatest articles of your own foreign +trade. If you tax the import of that rebellious colony, what do you tax +but your own manufactures, or the goods of some other obedient and +already well-taxed colony? Who has said one word on this labyrinth of +detail, which bewilders you more and more as you enter into it? Who has +presented, who can present, you with a clew to lead you out of it? I +think, Sir, it is impossible that you should not recollect that the +colony bounds are so implicated in one another (you know it by your +other experiments in the bill for prohibiting the New England fishery) +that you can lay no possible restraints on almost any of them which may +not be presently eluded, if you do not confound the innocent with the +guilty, and burden those whom upon every principle you ought to +exonerate. He must be grossly ignorant of America, who thinks, that, +without falling into this confusion of all rules of equity and policy, +you can restrain any single colony, especially Virginia and Maryland, +the central, and most important of them all.</p> + +<p>Let it also be considered, that either in the present confusion you +settle a permanent contingent, <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" title="175" class="pagenum"></a>which will and must be trifling, and +then you have no effectual revenue,—or you change the quota at every +exigency, and then on every new repartition you will have a new quarrel.</p> + +<p>Reflect besides, that, when you have fixed a quota for every colony, you +have not provided for prompt and punctual payment. Suppose one, two, +five, ten years' arrears. You cannot issue a Treasury extent against the +failing colony. You must make new Boston port bills, new restraining +laws, new acts for dragging men to England for trial. You must send out +new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again. From this day forward the +empire is never to know an hour's tranquillity. An intestine fire will +be kept alive in the bowels of the colonies, which one time or other +must consume this whole empire. I allow, indeed, that the Empire of +Germany raises her revenue and her troops by quotas and contingents; but +the revenue of the Empire and the army of the Empire is the worst +revenue and the worst army in the world.</p> + +<p>Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore have a perpetual +quarrel. Indeed, the noble lord who proposed this project of a ransom by +auction seemed himself to be of that opinion. His project was rather +designed for breaking the union of the colonies than for establishing a +revenue. He confessed he apprehended that his proposal would not be to +<i>their taste</i>. I say, this scheme of disunion seems to be at the bottom +of the project; for I will not suspect that the noble lord meant nothing +but merely to delude the nation by an airy phantom which he never +intended to realize. But whatever his views may be, as I propose the +peace and union of the colonies as the very foundation of my plan, it +can<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" title="176" class="pagenum"></a>not accord with one whose foundation is perpetual discord.</p> + +<p>Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and simple: the other +full of perplexed and intricate mazes. This is mild: that harsh. This is +found by experience effectual for its purposes: the other is a new +project. This is universal: the other calculated for certain colonies +only. This is immediate in its conciliatory operation: the other remote, +contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity of a ruling +people: gratuitous, unconditional, and not held out as matter of bargain +and sale. I have done my duty in proposing it to you. I have, indeed, +tired you by a long discourse; but this is the misfortune of those to +whose influence nothing will be conceded, and who must win every inch of +their ground by argument. You have heard me with goodness. May you +decide with wisdom! For my part, I feel my mind greatly disburdened by +what I have done to-day. I have been the less fearful of trying your +patience, because on this subject I mean to spare it altogether in +future. I have this comfort,—that, in every stage of the American +affairs, I have steadily opposed the measures that have produced the +confusion, and may bring on the destruction, of this empire. I now go so +far as to risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my +country, I give it to my conscience.</p> + +<p>But what (says the financier) is peace to us without money? Your plan +gives us no revenue.—No! But it does: for it secures to the subject the +power of REFUSAL,—the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and +fact a liar, if this power in the subject, of proportioning his grant, +or of not granting <a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" title="177" class="pagenum"></a>at all, has not been found the richest mine of +revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of man. It does +not, indeed, vote you £152,750: 11: 2-3/4ths, nor any other paltry +limited sum; but it gives the strong-box itself, the fund, the bank, +from whence only revenues can arise amongst a people sensible of +freedom: <i>Posita luditur arca</i>. Cannot you in England, cannot you at +this time of day, cannot you, an House of Commons, trust to the +principle which has raised so mighty a revenue, and accumulated a debt +of near 140 millions in this country? Is this principle to be true in +England and false everywhere else? Is it not true in Ireland? Has it not +hitherto been true in the colonies? Why should you presume, that, in any +country, a body duly constituted for any function will neglect to +perform its duty, and abdicate its trust? Such a presumption would go +against all government in all modes. But, in truth, this dread of penury +of supply from a free assembly has no foundation in Nature. For first, +observe, that, besides the desire which all men have naturally of +supporting the honor of their own government, that sense of dignity, and +that security to property, which ever attends freedom, has a tendency to +increase the stock of the free community. Most may be taken where most +is accumulated. And what is the soil or climate where experience has not +uniformly proved that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting +from the weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever run with a more +copious stream of revenue than could be squeezed from the dry husks of +oppressed indigence by the straining of all the politic machinery in the +world?</p> + +<p>Next, we know that parties must ever exist in a <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" title="178" class="pagenum"></a>free country. We know, +too, that the emulations of such parties, their contradictions, their +reciprocal necessities, their hopes, and their fears, must send them all +in their turns to him that holds the balance of the state. The parties +are the gamesters; but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the +winner in the end. When this game is played, I really think it is more +to be feared that the people will be exhausted than that government will +not be supplied. Whereas whatever is got by acts of absolute power ill +obeyed because odious, or by contracts ill kept because constrained, +will be narrow, feeble, uncertain, and precarious.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">"Ease would retract<br /></span> +<span>Vows made in pain, as violent and void."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I, for one, protest against compounding our demands: I declare against +compounding, for a poor limited sum, the immense, ever-growing, eternal +debt which is due to generous government from protected freedom. And so +may I speed in the great object I propose to you, as I think it would +not only be an act of injustice, but would be the worst economy in the +world, to compel the colonies to a sum certain, either in the way of +ransom, or in the way of compulsory compact.</p> + +<p>But to clear up my ideas on this subject,—a revenue from America +transmitted hither. Do not delude yourselves: you can never receive +it,—no, not a shilling. We have experience that from remote countries +it is not to be expected. If, when you attempted to extract revenue from +Bengal, you were obliged to return in loan what you had taken in +imposition, what can you expect from North America? For, certainly, if +ever there was a country qualified to produce wealth, it is India; or an +in<a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" title="179" class="pagenum"></a>stitution fit for the transmission, it is the East India Company. +America has none of these aptitudes. If America gives you taxable +objects on which you lay your duties here, and gives you at the same +time a surplus by a foreign sale of her commodities to pay the duties on +these objects which you tax at home, she has performed her part to the +British revenue. But with regard to her own internal establishments, she +may, I doubt not she will, contribute in moderation. I say in +moderation; for she ought not to be permitted to exhaust herself. She +ought to be reserved to a war; the weight of which, with the enemies +that we are most likely to have, must be considerable in her quarter of +the globe. There she may serve you, and serve you essentially.</p> + +<p>For that service, for all service, whether of revenue, trade, or empire, +my trust is in her interest in the British Constitution. My hold of the +colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from +kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are +ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the +colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your +government,—they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under +heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it +be once understood that your government may be one thing and their +privileges another, that these two things may exist without any mutual +relation,—the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything +hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep +the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the +sacred temple consecrated to our common <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" title="180" class="pagenum"></a>faith, wherever the chosen race +and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards +you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more +ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. +Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. +They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But, until +you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural +dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity +of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the true Act of +Navigation, which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and through +them secures to you the wealth of the world. Deny them this +participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond which originally +made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain +so weak an imagination as that your registers and your bonds, your +affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your clearances, are +what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your +letters of office, and your instructions, and your suspending clauses +are the things that hold together the great contexture of this +mysterious whole. These things do not make your government. Dead +instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English +communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the +spirit of the English Constitution, which, infused through the mighty +mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the +empire, even down to the minutest member.</p> + +<p>Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in England? +Do you imagine, then, that it <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" title="181" class="pagenum"></a>is the Land-Tax Act which raises your +revenue? that it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply which +gives you your army? or that it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it +with bravery and discipline? No! surely, no! It is the love of the +people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of +the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you +your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience +without which your army would be a base rabble and your navy nothing but +rotten timber.</p> + +<p>All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the +profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians who have no +place among us: a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what +is gross and material,—and who, therefore, far from being qualified to +be directors of the great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a +wheel in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, +these ruling and master principles, which in the opinion of such men as +I have mentioned have no substantial existence, are in truth everything, +and all in all. Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; +and a great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious +of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our place as becomes our +station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings +on America with the old warning of the Church, <i>Sursum corda!</i> 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 hon<a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" title="182" class="pagenum"></a>orable +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.</p> + +<p>In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now (<i>quod felix +faustumque sit!</i>) lay the first stone of the Temple of Peace; and I move +you,—</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Upon this resolution the previous question was put and carried: for the +previous question, 270; against it, 78.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>As the propositions were opened separately in the body of the speech, +the reader perhaps may wish to see the whole of them together, in the +form in which they were moved for.</p> + +<p>"MOVED,</p> + +<p>"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 <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" title="183" class="pagenum"></a>and burgesses, or others, to +represent them in the high court of Parliament."</p> + +<p>"That the said colonies and plantations have been made liable to, and +bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, and taxes, given and +granted by Parliament, though the said colonies and plantations have not +their knights and burgesses in the said high court of Parliament, of +their own election, to represent the condition of their country; <i>by +lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies, +given, granted, and amended to, in the said, court, in a manner +prejudicial to the common wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the +subjects inhabiting within the same</i>."</p> + +<p>"That, from the distance of the said colonies, and from other +circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for procuring a +representation in Parliament for the said colonies."</p> + +<p>"That each of the said colonies hath within itself a body, chosen, in +part or in the whole, by the freemen, freeholders, or other free +inhabitants thereof, commonly called the General Assembly, or General +Court, with powers legally to raise, levy, and assess, according to the +several usages of such colonies, duties and taxes towards defraying all +sorts of public services."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30" /><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor" +title="The first four motions and the last had the previous question put on them. The others were negatived. + +The words in Italics were, by an amendment that was carried, left out of the motion; which will appear in the journals, +though it is not the practice to insert such amendments in the votes.">[30]</a></p> + +<p>"That the said general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies +legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times freely granted +several large subsidies <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" title="184" class="pagenum"></a>and public aids for his Majesty's service, +according to their abilities, when required thereto by letter from one +of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State; and that their right to +grant the same, and their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said +grants, have been at sundry times acknowledged by Parliament."</p> + +<p>"That it hath been found by experience, that the manner of granting the +said supplies and aids by the said general assemblies hath been more +agreeable to the inhabitants of the said colonies, and more beneficial +and conducive to the public service, than the mode of giving and +granting aids and subsidies in Parliament, to be raised and paid in the +said colonies."</p> + +<p>"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the seventh year of the +reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for granting certain +duties in the British colonies and plantations in America; for allowing +a drawback of the duties of customs, upon the exportation from this +kingdom, of coffee and cocoa-nuts, of the produce of the said colonies +or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China earthen +ware exported to America; and for more effectually preventing the +clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and plantations.'"</p> + +<p>"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth year of +the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act to discontinue, in +such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and +discharging, lading or chipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise, at +the town and within the harbor of Boston, in the province of +Massachusetts Bay, in North America.'"<a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" title="185" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth year of +the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for the impartial +administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any +acts done by them, in the execution of the law, or for the suppression +of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New +England.'"</p> + +<p>"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth year of +the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for the better +regulating the government of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in +New England.'"</p> + +<p>"That it may be proper to explain and amend an act, made in the +thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled, 'An +act for the trial of treasons committed out of the king's dominions.'"</p> + +<p>"That, from the time when the general assembly, or general court, of any +colony or plantation in North America, shall have appointed, by act of +assembly duly confirmed, a settled salary to the offices of the chief +justice and other judges of the superior courts, it may be proper that +the said chief justice and other judges of the superior courts of such +colony shall hold his and their office and offices during their good +behavior, and shall not be removed therefrom, but when the said removal +shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, upon a hearing on complaint +from the general assembly, or on a complaint from the governor, or the +council, or the house of representatives, severally, of the colony in +which the said chief justice and other judges have exercised the said +offices."</p> + +<p>"That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty or +vice-admiralty, authorized by the 15th <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" title="186" class="pagenum"></a>chapter of the 4th George the +Third, in such a manner as to make the same more commodious to those who +sue or are sued in the said courts; <i>and to provide for the mere decent +maintenance of the judges of the same</i>."<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" title="187" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18" /><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The act to restrain the trade and commerce of the +provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and colonies of +Connecticut and Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, in North +America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands in the West +Indies; and to prohibit such provinces and colonies from carrying on any +fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, and other places therein +mentioned, under certain conditions and limitations.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19" /><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Mr. Rose Fuller.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20" /><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> "That when the governor, council, and assembly, or general +court, of any of his Majesty's provinces or colonies in America shall +<i>propose</i> to make provision, <i>according to the condition, +circumstances</i>, and <i>situation</i> of such province or colony, for +contributing their <i>proportion</i> to the <i>common defence</i>, (such +<i>proportion</i> to be raised under the authority of the general court or +general assembly of such province or colony, and disposable by +Parliament,) and shall <i>engage</i> to make provision, also for the support +of the civil government and the administration, of justice in such +province or colony, it will be proper, <i>if such proposal shall be +approved by his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament</i>, and for so +long as such provision shall be made accordingly, to forbear, in +<i>respect of such province or colony</i>, to levy any duty, tax, or +assessment, or to impose any farther duty, tax, or assessment, except +only such duties as it may be expedient to continue to levy or to impose +for the regulation of commerce: the net produce of the duties last +mentioned to be carried to the account of such province or colony +respectively."—Resolution moved by Lord North in the Committee, and +agreed to by the House, 27th February, 1775.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21" /><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Mr. Glover.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22" /><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The Attorney-General.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23" /><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Mr. Rice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24" /><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Lord North.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25" /><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Journals of the House, Vol. XXV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26" /><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Journals of the House, Vol. XXVII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27" /><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Ibid.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28" /><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The Solicitor-General informed Mr. B., when the +resolutions were separately moved, that the grievance of the judges +partaking of the profits of the seizure had been redressed by office; +accordingly the resolution was amended.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29" /><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Lord North.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30" /><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> The first four motions and the last had the previous +question put on them. The others were negatived. +</p><p> +The words in Italics were, by an amendment that was carried, left out of +the motion; which will appear in the journals, though it is not the +practice to insert such amendments in the votes.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SHERIFFS_OF_THE_CITY_OF_BRISTOL" id="SHERIFFS_OF_THE_CITY_OF_BRISTOL" /><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br /> +<br /> +LETTER<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%">JOHN FARR AND JOHN HARRIS, ESQRS.,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">SHERIFFS OF THE CITY OF BRISTOL,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE</span><br /> +<br /> +AFFAIRS OF AMERICA.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">1777.</span></h2> +<p><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" title="188" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" title="189" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Gentlemen,—I have the honor of sending you the two last acts which have +been passed with regard to the troubles in America. These acts are +similar to all the rest which have been made on the same subject. They +operate by the same principle, and they are derived from the very same +policy. I think they complete the number of this sort of statutes to +nine. It affords no matter for very pleasing reflection to observe that +our subjects diminish as our laws increase.</p> + +<p>If I have the misfortune of differing with some of my fellow-citizens on +this great and arduous subject, it is no small consolation to me that I +do not differ from you. With you I am perfectly united. We are heartily +agreed in our detestation of a civil war. We have ever expressed the +most unqualified disapprobation of all the steps which have led to it, +and of all those which tend to prolong it. And I have no doubt that we +feel exactly the same emotions of grief and shame on all its miserable +consequences, whether they appear, on the one side or the other, in the +shape of victories or defeats, of captures made from the English on the +continent or from the English in these islands, of legislative +regulations which subvert the liberties of our brethren or which +undermine our own.</p> + +<p>Of the first of these statutes (that for the letter of <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" title="190" class="pagenum"></a>marque) I shall +say little. Exceptionable as it may be, and as I think it is in some +particulars, it seems the natural, perhaps necessary, result of the +measures we have taken and the situation we are in. The other (for a +partial suspension of the <i>Habeas Corpus</i>) appears to me of a much +deeper malignity. During its progress through the House of Commons, it +has been amended, so as to express, more distinctly than at first it +did, the avowed sentiments of those who framed it; and the main ground +of my exception to it is, because it does express, and does carry into +execution, purposes which appear to me so contradictory to all the +principles, not only of the constitutional policy of Great Britain, but +even of that species of hostile justice which no asperity of war wholly +extinguishes in the minds of a civilized people.</p> + +<p>It seems to have in view two capital objects: the first, to enable +administration to confine, as long as it shall think proper, those whom +that act is pleased to qualify by the name of <i>pirates</i>. Those so +qualified I understand to be the commanders and mariners of such +privateers and ships of war belonging to the colonies as in the course +of this unhappy contest may fall into the hands of the crown. They are +therefore to be detained in prison, under the criminal description of +piracy, to a future trial and ignominious punishment, whenever +circumstances shall make it convenient to execute vengeance on them, +under the color of that odious and infamous offence.</p> + +<p>To this first purpose of the law I have no small dislike, because the +act does not (as all laws and all equitable transactions ought to do) +fairly describe its object. The persons who make a naval war upon us, in +consequence of the present troubles, may be rebels; <a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" title="191" class="pagenum"></a>but to call and +treat them as pirates is confounding not only the natural distinction of +things, but the order of crimes,—which, whether by putting them from a +higher part of the scale to the lower or from the lower to the higher, +is never done without dangerously disordering the whole frame of +jurisprudence. Though piracy may be, in the eye of the law, a <i>less</i> +offence than treason, yet, as both are, in effect, punished with the +same death, the same forfeiture, and the same corruption of blood, I +never would take from any fellow-creature whatever any sort of advantage +which he may derive to his safety from the pity of mankind, or to his +reputation from their general feelings, by degrading his offence, when I +cannot soften his punishment. The general sense of mankind tells me that +those offences which may possibly arise from mistaken virtue are not in +the class of infamous actions. Lord Coke, the oracle of the English law, +conforms to that general sense, where he says that "those things which +are of the highest criminality may be of the least disgrace." The act +prepares a sort of masked proceeding, not honorable to the justice of +the kingdom, and by no means necessary for its safety. I cannot enter +into it. If Lord Balmerino, in the last rebellion, had driven off the +cattle of twenty clans, I should have thought it would have been a +scandalous and low juggle, utterly unworthy of the manliness of an +English judicature, to have tried him for felony as a stealer of cows.</p> + +<p>Besides, I must honestly tell you that I could not vote for, or +countenance in any way, a statute which stigmatizes with the crime of +piracy these men whom an act of Parliament had previously put out of the +protection of the law. When the legislature of this <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" title="192" class="pagenum"></a>kingdom had ordered +all their ships and goods, for the mere new-created offence of +exercising trade, to be divided as a spoil among the seamen, of the +navy,—to consider the necessary reprisal of an unhappy, proscribed, +interdicted people, as the crime of piracy, would have appeared, in any +other legislature than ours, a strain of the most insulting and most +unnatural cruelty and injustice. I assure you I never remember to have +heard of anything like it in any time or country.</p> + +<p>The second professed purpose of the act is to detain in England for +trial those who shall commit high treason in America.</p> + +<p>That you may be enabled to enter into the true spirit of the present +law, it is necessary, Gentlemen, to apprise you that there is an act, +made so long ago as in the reign of Henry the Eighth, before the +existence or thought of any English colonies in America, for the trial +in this kingdom of treasons committed out of the realm. In the year 1769 +Parliament thought proper to acquaint the crown with their construction +of that act in a formal address, wherein they entreated his Majesty to +cause persons charged with high treason in America to be brought into +this kingdom for trial. By this act of Henry the Eighth, <i>so construed +and so applied</i>, almost all that is substantial and beneficial in a +trial by jury is taken away from the subject in the colonies. This is, +however, saying too little; for to try a man under that act is, in +effect, to condemn him unheard. A person is brought hither in the +dungeon of a ship's hold; thence he is vomited into a dungeon on land, +loaded with irons, unfurnished with money, unsupported by friends, three +thousand miles from all means of calling upon or confronting <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" title="193" class="pagenum"></a>evidence, +where no one local circumstance that tends to detect perjury can +possibly be judged of;—such a person may be executed according to form, +but he can never be tried according to justice.</p> + +<p>I therefore could never reconcile myself to the bill I send you, which +is expressly provided to remove all inconveniences from the +establishment of a mode of trial which has ever appeared to me most +unjust and most unconstitutional. Far from removing the difficulties +which impede the execution of so mischievous a project, I would heap new +difficulties upon it, if it were in my power. All the ancient, honest, +juridical principles and institutions of England are so many clogs to +check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression. They +were invented for this one good purpose, that what was not just should +not be convenient. Convinced of this, I would leave things as I found +them. The old, cool-headed, general law is as good as any deviation +dictated by present heat.</p> + +<p>I could see no fair, justifiable expedience pleaded to favor this new +suspension of the liberty of the subject. If the English in the colonies +can support the independency to which they have been unfortunately +driven, I suppose nobody has such a fanatical zeal for the criminal +justice of Henry the Eighth that he will contend for executions which +must be retaliated tenfold on his own friends, or who has conceived so +strange an idea of English dignity as to think the defeats in America +compensated by the triumphs at Tyburn. If, on the contrary, the colonies +are reduced to the obedience of the crown, there must be, under that +authority, tribunals in the country itself fully competent to administer +justice on all offenders.<a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" title="194" class="pagenum"></a> But if there are not, and that we must +suppose a thing so humiliating to our government as that all this vast +continent should unanimously concur in thinking that no ill fortune can +convert resistance to the royal authority into a criminal act, we may +call the effect of our victory peace, or obedience, or what we will, but +the war is not ended; the hostile mind continues in full vigor, and it +continues under a worse form. If your peace be nothing more than a +sullen pause from arms, if their quiet be nothing but the meditation of +revenge, where smitten pride smarting from its wounds festers into new +rancor, neither the act of Henry the Eighth nor its handmaid of this +reign will answer any wise end of policy or justice. For, if the bloody +fields which they saw and felt are not sufficient to subdue the reason +of America, (to use the expressive phrase of a great lord in office,) it +is not the judicial slaughter which is made in another hemisphere +against their universal sense of justice that will ever reconcile them +to the British government.</p> + +<p>I take it for granted, Gentlemen, that we sympathize in a proper horror +of all punishment further than as it serves for an example. To whom, +then does the example of an execution in England for this American +rebellion apply? Remember, you are told every day, that the present is a +contest between the two countries, and that we in England are at war for +<i>our own</i> dignity against our rebellious children. Is this true? If it +be, it is surely among such rebellious children that examples for +disobedience should be made, to be in any degree instructive: for who +ever thought of teaching parents their duty by an example from the +punishment of an undutiful son? As <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" title="195" class="pagenum"></a>well might the execution of a +fugitive negro in the plantations be considered as a lesson to teach +masters humanity to their slaves. Such executions may, indeed, satiate +our revenge; they may harden our hearts, and puff us up with pride and +arrogance. Alas! this is not instruction.</p> + +<p>If anything can be drawn from such examples by a parity of the case, it +is to show how deep their crime and how heavy their punishment will be, +who shall at any time dare to resist a distant power actually disposing +of their property without their voice or consent to the disposition, and +overturning their franchises without charge or hearing. God forbid that +England should ever read this lesson written in the blood of <i>any</i> of +her offspring!</p> + +<p>War is at present carried on between the king's natural and foreign +troops, on one side, and the English in America, on the other, upon the +usual footing of other wars; and accordingly an exchange of prisoners +has been regularly made from the beginning. If, notwithstanding this +hitherto equal procedure, upon some prospect of ending the war with +success (which, however, may be delusive) administration prepares to act +against those as <i>traitors</i> who remain in their hands at the end of the +troubles, in my opinion we shall exhibit to the world as indecent a +piece of injustice as ever civil fury has produced. If the prisoners who +have been exchanged have not by that exchange been <i>virtually pardoned</i>, +the cartel (whether avowed or understood) is a cruel fraud; for you have +received the life of a man, and you ought to return a life for it, or +there is no parity or fairness in the transaction.</p> + +<p>If, on the other hand, we admit that they who are <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" title="196" class="pagenum"></a>actually exchanged +are pardoned, but contend that you may justly reserve for vengeance +those who remain unexchanged, then this unpleasant and unhandsome +consequence will follow: that you judge of the delinquency of men merely +by the time of their guilt, and not by the heinousness of it; and you +make fortune and accidents, and not the moral qualities of human action, +the rule of your justice.</p> + +<p>These strange incongruities must ever perplex those who confound the +unhappiness of civil dissension with the crime of treason. Whenever a +rebellion really and truly exists, which is as easily known in fact as +it is difficult to define in words, government has not entered into such +military conventions, but has ever declined all intermediate treaty +which should put rebels in possession of the law of nations with regard +to war. Commanders would receive no benefits at their hands, because +they could make no return for them. Who has ever heard of capitulation, +and parole of honor, and exchange of prisoners in the late rebellions in +this kingdom? The answer to all demands of that sort was, "We can engage +for nothing; you are at the king's pleasure." We ought to remember, +that, if our present enemies be in reality and truth rebels, the king's +generals have no right to release them upon any conditions whatsoever; +and they are themselves answerable to the law, and as much in want of a +pardon, for doing so, as the rebels whom they release.</p> + +<p>Lawyers, I know, cannot make the distinction for which I contend; +because they have their strict rule to go by. But legislators ought to +do what lawyers cannot; for they have no other rules to bind them but +the great principles of reason and equity and the <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" title="197" class="pagenum"></a>general sense of +mankind. These they are bound to obey and follow, and rather to enlarge +and enlighten law by the liberality of legislative reason than to fetter +and bind their higher capacity by the narrow constructions of +subordinate, artificial justice. If we had adverted to this, we never +could consider the convulsions of a great empire, not disturbed by a +little disseminated faction, but divided by whole communities and +provinces, and entire legal representatives of a people, as fit matter +of discussion under a commission of Oyer and Terminer. It is as opposite +to reason and prudence as it is to humanity and justice.</p> + +<p>This act, proceeding on these principles, that is, preparing to end the +present troubles by a trial of one sort of hostility under the name of +piracy, and of another by the name of treason, and executing the act of +Henry the Eighth according to a new and unconstitutional interpretation, +I have thought evil and dangerous, even though the instruments of +effecting such purposes had been merely of a neutral quality.</p> + +<p>But it really appears to me that the means which this act employs are at +least as exceptionable as the end. Permit me to open myself a little +upon this subject; because it is of importance to me, when I am obliged +to submit to the power without acquiescing in the reason of an act of +legislature, that I should justify my dissent by such arguments as may +be supposed to have weight with a sober man.</p> + +<p>The main operative regulation of the act is to suspend the Common Law +and the statute <i>Habeas Corpus</i> (the sole securities either for liberty +or justice) with regard to all those who have been out of the realm, or +on the high seas, within a given time. The rest of the people, as I +understand, are to continue as they stood before.<a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" title="198" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>I confess, Gentlemen, that this appears to me as bad in the principle, +and far worse in its consequence, than an universal suspension of the +<i>Habeas Corpus</i> Act; and the limiting qualification, instead of taking +out the sting, does in my humble opinion sharpen and envenom it to a +greater degree. Liberty, if I understand it at all, is a <i>general</i> +principle, and the clear right of all the subjects within the realm, or +of none. Partial freedom seems to me a most invidious mode of slavery. +But, unfortunately, it is the kind of slavery the most easily admitted +in times of civil discord: for parties are but too apt to forget their +own future safety in their desire of sacrificing their enemies. People +without much difficulty admit the entrance of that injustice of which +they are not to be the immediate victims. In times of high proceeding it +is never the faction of the predominant power that is in danger: for no +tyranny chastises its own instruments. It is the obnoxious and the +suspected who want the protection of law; and there is nothing to bridle +the partial violence of state factions but this,—"that, whenever an act +is made for a cessation of law and justice, the whole people should be +universally subjected to the same suspension of their franchises." The +alarm of such a proceeding would then be universal. It would operate as +a sort of <i>call of the nation</i>. It would become every man's immediate +and instant concern to be made very sensible of <i>the absolute necessity</i> +of this total eclipse of liberty. They would more carefully advert to +every renewal, and more powerfully resist it. These great determined +measures are not commonly so dangerous to freedom. They are marked with +too strong lines to slide into use. No plea, nor pretence, of +<i>inconvenience or evil example</i> (which must <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" title="199" class="pagenum"></a>in their nature be daily +and ordinary incidents) can be admitted as a reason for such mighty +operations. But the true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for +expedients, and by parts. The <i>Habeas Corpus</i> Act supposes, contrary to +the genius of most other laws, that the lawful magistrate may see +particular men with a malignant eye, and it provides for that identical +case. But when men, in particular descriptions, marked out by the +magistrate himself, are delivered over by Parliament to this possible +malignity, it is not the <i>Habeas Corpus</i> that is occasionally suspended, +but its spirit that is mistaken, and its principle that is subverted. +Indeed, nothing is security to any individual but the common interest of +all.</p> + +<p>This act, therefore, has this distinguished evil in it, that it is the +first <i>partial</i> suspension of the <i>Habeas Corpus</i> that has been made. +The precedent, which is always of very great importance, is now +established. For the first time a distinction is made among the people +within this realm. Before this act, every man putting his foot on +English ground, every stranger owing only a local and temporary +allegiance, even negro slaves who had been sold in the colonies and +under an act of Parliament, became as free as every other man who +breathed the same air with them. Now a line is drawn, which may be +advanced further and further at pleasure, on the same argument of mere +expedience on which it was first described. There is no equality among +us; we are not fellow-citizens, if the mariner who lands on the quay +does not rest on as firm legal ground as the merchant who sits in his +counting-house. Other laws may injure the community; this dissolves it. +As things now stand, every man in the West Indies, <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" title="200" class="pagenum"></a>every one inhabitant +of three unoffending provinces on the continent, every person coming +from the East Indies, every gentleman who has travelled for his health +or education, every mariner who has navigated the seas, is, for no other +offence, under a temporary proscription. Let any of these facts (now +become presumptions of guilt) be proved against him, and the bare +suspicion of the crown puts him out of the law. It is even by no means +clear to me whether the negative proof does not lie upon the person +apprehended on suspicion, to the subversion of all justice.</p> + +<p>I have not debated against this bill in its progress through the House; +because it would have been vain to oppose, and impossible to correct it. +It is some time since I have been clearly convinced, that, in the +present state of things, all opposition to any measures proposed by +ministers, where the name of America appears, is vain and frivolous. You +may be sure that I do not speak of my opposition, which in all +circumstances must be so, but that of men of the greatest wisdom and +authority in the nation. Everything proposed against America is supposed +of course to be in favor of Great Britain. Good and ill success are +equally admitted as reasons for persevering in the present methods. +Several very prudent and very well-intentioned persons were of opinion, +that, during the prevalence of such dispositions, all struggle rather +inflamed than lessened the distemper of the public counsels. Finding +such resistance to be considered as factious by most within doors and by +very many without, I cannot conscientiously support what is against my +opinion, nor prudently contend with what I know is irresistible. +Preserving my <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" title="201" class="pagenum"></a>principles unshaken, I reserve my activity for rational +endeavors; and I hope that my past conduct has given sufficient +evidence, that, if I am a single day from my place, it is not owing to +indolence or love of dissipation. The slightest hope of doing good is +sufficient to recall me to what I quitted with regret In declining for +some time my usual strict attendance, I do not in the least condemn the +spirit of those gentlemen who, with a just confidence in their +abilities, (in which I claim a sort of share from my love and admiration +of them,) were of opinion that their exertions in this desperate case +might be of some service. They thought that by contracting the sphere of +its application they might lessen the malignity of an evil principle. +Perhaps they were in the right. But when my opinion was so very clearly +to the contrary, for the reasons I have just stated, I am sure <i>my</i> +attendance would have been ridiculous.</p> + +<p>I must add, in further explanation of <i>my</i> conduct, that, far from +softening the features of such a principle, and thereby removing any +part of the popular odium or natural terrors attending it, I should be +sorry that anything framed in contradiction to the spirit of our +Constitution did not instantly produce, in fact, the grossest of the +evils with which it was pregnant in its nature. It is by lying dormant a +long time, or being at first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power +steals upon a people. On the next unconstitutional act, all the +fashionable world will be ready to say, "Your prophecies are ridiculous, +your fears are vain, you see how little of the mischiefs which you +formerly foreboded are come to pass." Thus, by degrees, that artful +softening of all arbitrary power, the alleged infrequency or narrow +<a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" title="202" class="pagenum"></a>extent of its operation, will be received as a sort of aphorism,—and +Mr. Hume will not be singular in telling us, that the felicity of +mankind is no more disturbed by it than by earthquakes or thunder, or +the other more unusual accidents of Nature.</p> + +<p>The act of which I speak is among the fruits of the American war,—a war +in my humble opinion productive of many mischiefs, of a kind which +distinguish it from all others. Not only our policy is deranged, and our +empire distracted, but our laws and our legislative spirit appear to +have been totally perverted by it. We have made war on our colonies, not +by arms only, but by laws. As hostility and law are not very concordant +ideas, every step we have taken in this business has been made by +trampling on some maxim of justice or some capital principle of wise +government. What precedents were established, and what principles +overturned, (I will not say of English privilege, but of general +justice,) in the Boston Port, the Massachusetts Charter, the Military +Bill, and all that long array of hostile acts of Parliament by which the +war with America has been begun and supported! Had the principles of any +of these acts been first exerted on English ground, they would probably +have expired as soon as they touched it. But by being removed from our +persons, they have rooted in our laws, and the latest posterity will +taste the fruits of them.</p> + +<p>Nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, that our <i>laws</i> +are corrupted. Whilst <i>manners</i> remain entire, they will correct the +vices of law, and soften it at length to their own temper. But we have +to lament that in most of the late proceedings we see very few traces of +that generosity, humanity, and dig<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" title="203" class="pagenum"></a>nity of mind, which formerly +characterized this nation. War suspends the rules of moral obligation, +and what is long suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated. +Civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the people. They +vitiate their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert even the +natural taste and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to +consider our fellow-citizens in an hostile light, the whole body of our +nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very names of affection +and kindred, which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed, become new +incentives to hatred and rage when the communion of our country is +dissolved. We may flatter ourselves that we shall not fall into this +misfortune. But we have no charter of exemption, that I know of, from +the ordinary frailties of our nature.</p> + +<p>What but that blindness of heart which arises from the frenzy of civil +contention could have made any persons conceive the present situation of +the British affairs as an object of triumph to themselves or of +congratulation to their sovereign? Nothing surely could be more +lamentable to those who remember the flourishing days of this kingdom +than to see the insane joy of several unhappy people, amidst the sad +spectacle which our affairs and conduct exhibit to the scorn of Europe. +We behold (and it seems some people rejoice in beholding) our native +land, which used to sit the envied arbiter of all her neighbors, reduced +to a servile dependence on their mercy,—acquiescing in assurances of +friendship which she does not trust,—complaining of hostilities which +she dares not resent,—deficient to her allies, lofty to her subjects, +and submissive to her enemies,—whilst the <a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" title="204" class="pagenum"></a>liberal government of this +free nation is supported by the hireling sword of German boors and +vassals, and three millions of the subjects of Great Britain are seeking +for protection to English privileges in the arms of France!</p> + +<p>These circumstances appear to me more like shocking prodigies than +natural changes in human affairs. Men of firmer minds may see them +without staggering or astonishment. Some may think them matters of +congratulation and complimentary addresses; but I trust your candor will +be so indulgent to my weakness as not to have the worse opinion of me +for my declining to participate in this joy, and my rejecting all share +whatsoever in such a triumph. I am too old, too stiff in my inveterate +partialities, to be ready at all the fashionable evolutions of opinion. +I scarcely know how to adapt my mind to the feelings with which the +Court Gazettes mean to impress the people. It is not instantly that I +can be brought to rejoice, when I hear of the slaughter and captivity of +long lists of those names which have been familiar to my ears from my +infancy, and to rejoice that they have fallen under the sword of +strangers, whose barbarous appellations I scarcely know how to +pronounce. The glory acquired at the White Plains by Colonel Rahl has no +charms for me, and I fairly acknowledge that I have not yet learned to +delight in finding Fort Kniphausen in the heart of the British +dominions.</p> + +<p>It might be some consolation for the loss of our old regards, if our +reason were enlightened in proportion as our honest prejudices are +removed. Wanting feelings for the honor of our country, we might then in +cold blood be brought to think a little of our interests <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" title="205" class="pagenum"></a>as individual +citizens and our private conscience as moral agents.</p> + +<p>Indeed, our affairs are in a bad condition. I do assure those gentlemen +who have prayed for war, and obtained the blessing they have sought, +that they are at this instant in very great straits. The abused wealth +of this country continues a little longer to feed its distemper. As yet +they, and their German allies of twenty hireling states, have contended +only with the unprepared strength of our own infant colonies. But +America is not subdued. Not one unattacked village which was originally +adverse throughout that vast continent has yet submitted from love or +terror. You have the ground you encamp on, and you have no more. The +cantonments of your troops and your dominions are exactly of the same +extent. You spread devastation, but you do not enlarge the sphere of +authority.</p> + +<p>The events of this war are of so much greater magnitude than those who +either wished or feared it ever looked for, that this alone ought to +fill every considerate mind with anxiety and diffidence. Wise men often +tremble at the very things which fill the thoughtless with security. For +many reasons I do not choose to expose to public view all the +particulars of the state in which you stood with regard to foreign +powers during the whole course of the last year. Whether you are yet +wholly out of danger from them is more than I know, or than your rulers +can divine. But even if I were certain of my safety, I could not easily +forgive those who had brought me into the most dreadful perils, because +by accidents, unforeseen by them or me, I have escaped.</p> + +<p>Believe me, Gentlemen, the way still before you is <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" title="206" class="pagenum"></a>intricate, dark, and +full of perplexed and treacherous mazes. Those who think they have the +clew may lead us out of this labyrinth. We may trust them as amply as we +think proper; but as they have most certainly a call for all the reason +which their stock can furnish, why should we think it proper to disturb +its operation by inflaming their passions? I may be unable to lend an +helping hand to those who direct the state; but I should be ashamed to +make myself one of a noisy multitude to halloo and hearten them into +doubtful and dangerous courses. A conscientious man would be cautious +how he dealt in blood. He would feel some apprehension at being called +to a tremendous account for engaging in so deep a play without any sort +of knowledge of the game. It is no excuse for presumptuous ignorance, +that it is directed by insolent passion. The poorest being that crawls +on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and oppression, is an +object respectable in the eyes of God and man. But I cannot conceive any +existence under heaven (which in the depths of its wisdom tolerates all +sorts of things) that is more truly odious and disgusting than an +impotent, helpless creature, without civil wisdom or military skill, +without a consciousness of any other qualification for power but his +servility to it, bloated with pride and arrogance, calling for battles +which he is not to fight, contending for a violent dominion which he can +never exercise, and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable, in order +to render others contemptible and wretched.</p> + +<p>If you and I find our talents not of the great and ruling kind, our +conduct, at least, is conformable to our faculties. No man's life pays +the forfeit of our rashness. No desolate widow weeps tears of blood +<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" title="207" class="pagenum"></a>over our ignorance. Scrupulous and sober in a well-grounded distrust of +ourselves, we would keep in the port of peace and security; and perhaps +in recommending to others something of the same diffidence, we should +show ourselves more charitable to their welfare than injurious to their +abilities.</p> + +<p>There are many circumstances in the zeal shown for civil war which seem +to discover but little of real magnanimity. The addressers offer their +own persons, and they are satisfied with hiring Germans. They promise +their private fortunes, and they mortgage their country. They have all +the merit of volunteers, without risk of person or charge of +contribution; and when the unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery pours out +their kindred blood like water, they exult and triumph as if they +themselves had performed some notable exploit. I am really ashamed of +the fashionable language which has been held for some time past, which, +to say the best of it, is full of levity. You know that I allude to the +general cry against the cowardice of the Americans, as if we despised +them for not making the king's soldiery purchase the advantage they have +obtained at a dearer rate. It is not, Gentlemen, it is not to respect +the dispensations of Providence, nor to provide any decent retreat in +the mutability of human affairs. It leaves no medium between insolent +victory and infamous defeat. It tends to alienate our minds further and +further from our natural regards, and to make an eternal rent and schism +in the British nation. Those who do not wish for such a separation would +not dissolve that cement of reciprocal esteem and regard which can alone +bind together the parts of this great fabric. It ought to be our wish, +as it is <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" title="208" class="pagenum"></a>our duty, not only to forbear this style of outrage ourselves, +but to make every one as sensible as we can of the impropriety and +unworthiness of the tempers which give rise to it, and which designing +men are laboring with such malignant industry to diffuse amongst us. It +is our business to counteract them, if possible,—if possible, to awake +our natural regards, and to revive the old partiality to the English +name. Without something of this kind I do not see how it is ever +practicable really to reconcile with those whose affection, after all, +must be the surest hold of our government, and which is a thousand times +more worth to us than the mercenary zeal of all the circles of Germany.</p> + +<p>I can well conceive a country completely overrun, and miserably wasted, +without approaching in the least to settlement. In my apprehension, as +long as English government is attempted to be supported over Englishmen +by the sword alone, things will thus continue. I anticipate in my mind +the moment of the final triumph of foreign military force. When that +hour arrives, (for it may arrive,) then it is that all this mass of +weakness and violence will appear in its full light. If we should be +expelled from America, the delusion of the partisans of military +government might still continue. They might still feed their +imaginations with the possible good consequences which might have +attended success. Nobody could prove the contrary by facts. But in case +the sword should do all that the sword can do, the success of their arms +and the defeat of their policy will be one and the same thing. You will +never see any revenue from America. Some increase of the means of +corruption, without ease of the public burdens, is the very best that +can happen.<a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" title="209" class="pagenum"></a> Is it for this that we are at war,—and in such a war?</p> + +<p>As to the difficulties of laying once more the foundations of that +government which, for the sake of conquering what was our own, has been +voluntarily and wantonly pulled down by a court faction here, I tremble +to look at them. Has any of these gentlemen who are so eager to govern +all mankind shown himself possessed of the first qualification towards +government, some knowledge of the object, and of the difficulties which +occur in the task they have undertaken?</p> + +<p>I assure you, that, on the most prosperous issue of your arms, you will +not be where you stood when you called in war to supply the defects of +your political establishment. Nor would any disorder or disobedience to +government which could arise from the most abject concession on our part +ever equal those which will be felt after the most triumphant violence. +You have got all the intermediate evils of war into the bargain.</p> + +<p>I think I know America,—if I do not, my ignorance is incurable, for I +have spared no pains to understand it,—and I do most solemnly assure +those of my constituents who put any sort of confidence in my industry +and integrity, that everything that has been done there has arisen from +a total misconception of the object: that our means of originally +holding America, that our means of reconciling with it after quarrel, of +recovering it after separation, of keeping it after victory, did depend, +and must depend, in their several stages and periods, upon a total +renunciation of that unconditional submission which has taken such +possession of the minds of violent <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" title="210" class="pagenum"></a>men. The whole of those maxims upon +which we have made and continued this war must be abandoned. Nothing, +indeed, (for I would not deceive you,) can place us in our former +situation. That hope must be laid aside. But there is a difference +between bad and the worst of all. Terms relative to the cause of the war +ought to be offered by the authority of Parliament. An arrangement at +home promising some security for them ought to be made. By doing this, +without the least impairing of our strength, we add to the credit of our +moderation, which, in itself, is always strength more or less.</p> + +<p>I know many have been taught to think that moderation in a case like +this is a sort of treason,—and that all arguments for it are +sufficiently answered by railing at rebels and rebellion, and by +charging all the present or future miseries which we may suffer on the +resistance of our brethren. But I would wish them, in this grave matter, +and if peace is not wholly removed from their hearts, to consider +seriously, first, that to criminate and recriminate never yet was the +road to reconciliation, in any difference amongst men. In the next +place, it would be right to reflect that the American English (whom they +may abuse, if they think it honorable to revile the absent) can, as +things now stand, neither be provoked at our railing or bettered by our +instruction. All communication is cut off between us. But this we know +with certainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may reform +ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary, they must begin +somewhere; and a conciliatory temper must precede and prepare every plan +of reconciliation. Nor do I conceive that we suffer anything by thus +regulating our own minds. We are not dis<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" title="211" class="pagenum"></a>armed by being disencumbered of +our passions. Declaiming on rebellion never added a bayonet or a charge +of powder to your military force; but I am afraid that it has been the +means of taking up many muskets against you.</p> + +<p>This outrageous language, which has been encouraged and kept alive by +every art, has already done incredible mischief. For a long time, even +amidst the desolations of war, and the insults of hostile laws daily +accumulated on one another, the American leaders seem to have had the +greatest difficulty in bringing up their people to a declaration of +total independence. But the Court Gazette accomplished what the abettors +of independence had attempted in vain. When that disingenuous +compilation and strange medley of railing and flattery was adduced as a +proof of the united sentiments of the people of Great Britain, there was +a great change throughout all America. The tide of popular affection, +which had still set towards the parent country, began immediately to +turn, and to flow with great rapidity in a contrary course. Par from +concealing these wild declarations of enmity, the author of the +celebrated pamphlet which prepared the minds of the people for +independence insists largely on the multitude and the spirit of these +addresses; and he draws an argument from them, which, if the fact were +as he supposes, must be irresistible. For I never knew a writer on the +theory of government so partial to authority as not to allow that the +hostile mind of the rulers to their people did fully justify a change of +government; nor can any reason whatever be given why one people should +voluntarily yield any degree of preëminence to another but on a +supposition of <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" title="212" class="pagenum"></a>great affection and benevolence towards them. +Unfortunately, your rulers, trusting to other things, took no notice of +this great principle of connection. From the beginning of this affair, +they have done all they could to alienate your minds from your own +kindred; and if they could excite hatred enough in one of the parties +towards the other, they seemed to be of opinion that they had gone half +the way towards reconciling the quarrel.</p> + +<p>I know it is said, that your kindness is only alienated on account of +their resistance, and therefore, if the colonies surrender at +discretion, all sort of regard, and even much indulgence, is meant +towards them in future. But can those who are partisans for continuing a +war to enforce such a surrender be responsible (after all that has +passed) for such a future use of a power that is bound by no compacts +and restrained by no terror? Will they tell us what they call +indulgences? Do they not at this instant call the present war and all +its horrors a lenient and merciful proceeding?</p> + +<p>No conqueror that I ever heard of has <i>professed</i> to make a cruel, +harsh, and insolent use of his conquest. No! The man of the most +declared pride scarcely dares to trust his own heart with this dreadful +secret of ambition. But it will appear in its time; and no man who +professes to reduce another to the insolent mercy of a foreign arm ever +had any sort of good-will towards him. The profession of kindness, with +that sword in his hand, and that demand of surrender, is one of the most +provoking acts of his hostility. I shall be told that all this is +lenient as against rebellious adversaries. But are the leaders of their +faction more lenient to those who submit?<a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" title="213" class="pagenum"></a> Lord Howe and General Howe +have powers, under an act of Parliament, to restore to the king's peace +and to free trade any men or district which shall submit. Is this done? +We have been over and over informed by the authorized gazette, that the +city of New York and the countries of Staten and Long Island have +submitted voluntarily and cheerfully, and that many are very full of +zeal to the cause of administration. Were they instantly restored to +trade? Are they yet restored to it? Is not the benignity of two +commissioners, naturally most humane and generous men, some way fettered +by instructions, equally against their dispositions and the spirit of +Parliamentary faith, when Mr. Tryon, vaunting of the fidelity of the +city in which he is governor, is obliged to apply to ministry for leave +to protect the King's loyal subjects, and to grant to them, not the +disputed rights and privileges of freedom, but the common rights of men, +by the name of <i>graces</i>? Why do not the commissioners restore them on +the spot? Were they not named as commissioners for that express purpose? +But we see well enough to what the whole leads. The trade of America is +to be dealt out in <i>private indulgences and grants,</i>—that is, in jobs +to recompense the incendiaries of war. They will be informed of the +proper time in which to send out their merchandise. From a national, the +American trade is to be turned into a personal monopoly, and one set of +merchants are to be rewarded for the pretended zeal of which another set +are the dupes; and thus, between craft and credulity, the voice of +reason is stifled, and all the misconduct, all the calamities of the war +are covered and continued.</p> + +<p>If I had not lived long enough to be little surprised at anything, I +should have been in some degree as<a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" title="214" class="pagenum"></a>tonished at the continued rage of +several gentlemen, who, not satisfied with carrying fire and sword into +America, are animated nearly with the same fury against those neighbors +of theirs whose only crime it is, that they have charitably and humanely +wished them to entertain more reasonable sentiments, and not always to +sacrifice their interest to their passion. All this rage against +unresisting dissent convinces me, that, at bottom, they are far from +satisfied they are in the right. For what is it they would have? A war? +They certainly have at this moment the blessing of something that is +very like one; and if the war they enjoy at present be not sufficiently +hot and extensive, they may shortly have it as warm and as spreading as +their hearts can desire. Is it the force of the kingdom they call for? +They have it already; and if they choose to fight their battles in their +own person, nobody prevents their setting sail to America in the next +transports. Do they think that the service is stinted for want of +liberal supplies? Indeed they complain without reason. The table of the +House of Commons will glut them, let their appetite for expense be never +so keen. And I assure them further, that those who think with them in +the House of Commons are full as easy in the control as they are liberal +in the vote of these expenses. If this be not supply or confidence +sufficient, let them open their own private purse-strings, and give, +from what is left to them, as largely and with as little care as they +think proper.</p> + +<p>Tolerated in their passions, let them learn not to persecute the +moderation of their fellow-citizens. If all the world joined them in a +full cry against rebellion, and were as hotly inflamed against the whole +theory and enjoyment of freedom as those who are <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" title="215" class="pagenum"></a>the most factious for +servitude, it could not, in my opinion, answer any one end whatsoever in +this contest. The leaders of this war could not hire (to gratify their +friends) one German more than they do, or inspire him with less feeling +for the persons or less value for the privileges of their revolted +brethren. If we all adopted their sentiments to a man, their allies, the +savage Indians, could not be more ferocious than they are: they could +not murder one more helpless woman or child, or with more exquisite +refinements of cruelty torment to death one more of their English flesh +and blood, than they do already. The public money is given to purchase +this alliance;—and they have their bargain.</p> + +<p>They are continually boasting of unanimity, or calling for it. But +before this unanimity can be matter either of wish or congratulation, we +ought to be pretty sure that we are engaged in a rational pursuit. +Frenzy does not become a slighter distemper on account of the number of +those who may be infected with it. Delusion and weakness produce not one +mischief the less because they are universal. I declare that I cannot +discern the least advantage which could accrue to us, if we were able to +persuade our colonies that they had not a single friend in Great +Britain. On the contrary, if the affections and opinions of mankind be +not exploded as principles of connection, I conceive it would be happy +for us, if they were taught to believe that there was even a formed +American party in England, to whom they could always look for support. +Happy would it be for us, if, in all tempers, they might turn their eyes +to the parent state, so that their very turbulence and sedition should +find vent in no other place than this! I be<a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" title="216" class="pagenum"></a>lieve there is not a man +(except those who prefer the interest of some paltry faction to the very +being of their country) who would not wish that the Americans should +from time to time carry many points, and even some of them not quite +reasonable, by the aid of any denomination of men here, rather than they +should be driven to seek for protection against the fury of foreign +mercenaries and the waste of savages in the arms of France.</p> + +<p>When any community is subordinately connected with another, the great +danger of the connection is the extreme pride and self-complacency of +the superior, which in all matters of controversy will probably decide +in its own favor. It is a powerful corrective to such a very rational +cause of fear, if the inferior body can be made to believe that the +party inclination or political views of several in the principal state +will induce them in some degree to counteract this blind and tyrannical +partiality. There is no danger that any one acquiring consideration or +power in the presiding state should carry this leaning to the inferior +too far. The fault of human nature is not of that sort. Power, in +whatever hands, is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself. +But one great advantage to the support of authority attends such an +amicable and protecting connection: that those who have conferred favors +obtain influence, and from the foresight of future events can persuade +men who have received obligations sometimes to return them. Thus, by the +mediation of those healing principles, (call them good or evil,) +troublesome discussions are brought to some sort of adjustment, and +every hot controversy is not a civil war.</p> + +<p>But, if the colonies (to bring the general matter <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" title="217" class="pagenum"></a>home to us) could see +that in Great Britain the mass of the people is melted into its +government, and that every dispute with the ministry must of necessity +be always a quarrel with the nation, they can stand no longer in the +equal and friendly relation of fellow-citizens to the subjects of this +kingdom. Humble as this relation may appear to some, when it is once +broken, a strong tie is dissolved. Other sort of connections will be +sought. For there are very few in the world who will not prefer an +useful ally to an insolent master.</p> + +<p>Such discord has been the effect of the unanimity into which so many +have of late been seduced or bullied, or into the appearance of which +they have sunk through mere despair. They have been told that their +dissent from violent measures is an encouragement to rebellion. Men of +great presumption and little knowledge will hold a language which is +contradicted by the whole course of history. <i>General</i> rebellions and +revolts of an whole people never were <i>encouraged</i>, now or at any time. +They are always <i>provoked</i>. But if this unheard-of doctrine of the +encouragement of rebellion were true, if it were true that an assurance +of the friendship of numbers in this country towards the colonies could +become an encouragement to them to break off all connection with it, +what is the inference? Does anybody seriously maintain, that, charged +with my share of the public councils, I am obliged not to resist +projects which I think mischievous, lest men who suffer should be +encouraged to resist? The very tendency of such projects to produce +rebellion is one of the chief reasons against them. Shall that reason +not be given? Is it, then, a rule, that no man in this nation shall open +his <a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" title="218" class="pagenum"></a>mouth in favor of the colonies, shall defend their rights, or +complain of their sufferings,—or when war finally breaks out, no man +shall express his desires of peace? Has this been the law of our past, +or is it to be the terms of our future connection? Even looking no +further than ourselves, can it be true loyalty to any government, or +true patriotism towards any country, to degrade their solemn councils +into servile drawing-rooms, to flatter their pride and passions rather +than to enlighten their reason, and to prevent them from being cautioned +against violence lest others should be encouraged to resistance? By such +acquiescence great kings and mighty nations have been undone; and if any +are at this day in a perilous situation from rejecting truth and +listening to flattery, it would rather become them to reform the errors +under which they suffer than to reproach those who forewarned them of +their danger.</p> + +<p>But the rebels looked for assistance from this country.—They did so, in +the beginning of this controversy, most certainly; and they sought it by +earnest supplications to government, which dignity rejected, and by a +suspension of commerce, which the wealth of this nation enabled you to +despise. When they found that neither prayers nor menaces had any sort +of weight, but that a firm resolution was taken to reduce them to +unconditional obedience by a military force, they came to the last +extremity. Despairing of us, they trusted in themselves. Not strong +enough themselves, they sought succor in France. In proportion as all +encouragement here lessened, their distance from this country increased. +The encouragement is over; the alienation is complete.</p> + +<p>In order to produce this favorite unanimity in delu<a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" title="219" class="pagenum"></a>sion, and to prevent +all possibility of a return to our ancient happy concord, arguments for +our continuance in this course are drawn from the wretched situation +itself into which we have been betrayed. It is said, that, being at war +with the colonies, whatever our sentiments might have been before, all +ties between us are now dissolved, and all the policy we have left is to +strengthen the hands of government to reduce them. On the principle of +this argument, the more mischiefs we suffer from any administration, the +more our trust in it is to be confirmed. Let them but once get us into a +war, and then their power is safe, and an act of oblivion passed for all +their misconduct.</p> + +<p>But is it really true that government is always to be strengthened with +the instruments of war, but never furnished with the means of peace? In +former times, ministers, I allow, have been sometimes driven by the +popular voice to assert by arms the national honor against foreign +powers. But the wisdom of the nation has been far more clear, when those +ministers have been compelled to consult its interests by treaty. We all +know that the sense of the nation obliged the court of Charles the +Second to abandon the <i>Dutch war</i>: a war, next to the present, the most +impolitic which we ever carried on. The good people of England +considered Holland as a sort of dependency on this kingdom; they dreaded +to drive it to the protection or subject it to the power of France by +their own inconsiderate hostility. They paid but little respect to the +court jargon of that day; nor were they inflamed by the pretended +rivalship of the Dutch in trade,—by the massacre at Amboyna, acted on +the stage to provoke the public vengeance,—nor by declamations against +the ingratitude of the United<a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" title="220" class="pagenum"></a> Provinces for the benefits England had +conferred upon them in their infant state. They were not moved from +their evident interest by all these arts; nor was it enough to tell +them, they were at war, that they must go through with it, and that the +cause of the dispute was lost in the consequences. The people of England +were then, as they are now, called upon to make government strong. They +thought it a great deal better to make it wise and honest.</p> + +<p>When I was amongst my constituents at the last summer assizes, I +remember that men of all descriptions did then express a very strong +desire for peace, and no slight hopes of attaining it from the +commission sent out by my Lord Howe. And it is not a little remarkable, +that, in proportion as every person showed a zeal for the court +measures, he was then earnest in circulating an opinion of the extent of +the supposed powers of that commission. When I told them that Lord Howe +had no powers to treat, or to promise satisfaction on any point +whatsoever of the controversy, I was hardly credited,—so strong and +general was the desire of terminating this war by the method of +accommodation. As far as I could discover, this was the temper then +prevalent through the kingdom. The king's forces, it must be observed, +had at that time been obliged to evacuate Boston. The superiority of the +former campaign rested wholly with the colonists. If such powers of +treaty were to be wished whilst success was very doubtful, how came they +to be less so, since his Majesty's arms have been crowned with many +considerable advantages? Have these successes induced us to alter our +mind, as thinking the season of victory not the time for treating with +honor or advantage?<a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" title="221" class="pagenum"></a> Whatever changes have happened in the national +character, it can scarcely be our wish that terms of accommodation never +should be proposed to our enemy, except when they must be attributed +solely to our fears. It has happened, let me say unfortunately, that we +read of his Majesty's commission for making peace, and his troops +evacuating his last town in the Thirteen Colonies, at the same hour and +in the same gazette. It was still more unfortunate that no commission +went to America to settle the troubles there, until several months after +an act had been passed to put the colonies out of the protection of this +government, and to divide their trading property, without a possibility +of restitution, as spoil among the seamen of the navy. The most abject +submission on the part of the colonies could not redeem them. There was +no man on that whole continent, or within three thousand miles of it, +qualified by law to follow allegiance with protection or submission with +pardon. A proceeding of this kind has no example in history. +Independency, and independency with an enmity, (which, putting ourselves +out of the question, would be called natural and much provoked,) was the +inevitable consequence. How this came to pass the nation may be one day +in an humor to inquire.</p> + +<p>All the attempts made this session to give fuller powers of peace to the +commanders in America were stifled by the fatal confidence of victory +and the wild hopes of unconditional submission. There was a moment +favorable to the king's arms, when, if any powers of concession had +existed on the other side of the Atlantic, even after all our errors, +peace in all probability might have been restored. But calamity is +un<a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" title="222" class="pagenum"></a>happily the usual season of reflection; and the pride of men will not +often suffer reason to have any scope, until it can be no longer of +service.</p> + +<p>I have always wished, that as the dispute had its apparent origin from +things done in Parliament, and as the acts passed there had provoked the +war, that the foundations of peace should be laid in Parliament also. I +have been astonished to find that those whose zeal for the dignity of +our body was so hot as to light up the flames of civil war should even +publicly declare that these delicate points ought to be wholly left to +the crown. Poorly as I may be thought affected to the authority of +Parliament, I shall never admit that our constitutional rights can ever +become a matter of ministerial negotiation.</p> + +<p>I am charged with being an American. If warm affection towards those +over whom I claim any share of authority be a crime, I am guilty of this +charge. But I do assure you, (and they who know me publicly and +privately will bear witness to me,) that, if ever one man lived more +zealous than another for the supremacy of Parliament and the rights of +this imperial crown, it was myself. Many others, indeed, might be more +knowing in the extent of the foundation of these rights. I do not +pretend to be an antiquary, a lawyer, or qualified for the chair of +professor in metaphysics. I never ventured to put your solid interests +upon speculative grounds. My having constantly declined to do so has +been attributed to my incapacity for such disquisitions; and I am +inclined to believe it is partly the cause. I never shall be ashamed to +confess, that, where I am ignorant, I am diffident. I am, indeed, not +very solicitous to clear myself of this imputed incapacity; because men +even <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" title="223" class="pagenum"></a>less conversant than I am in this kind of subtleties, and placed +in stations to which I ought not to aspire, have, by the mere force of +civil discretion, often conducted the affairs of great nations with +distinguished felicity and glory.</p> + +<p>When I first came into a public trust, I found your Parliament in +possession of an unlimited legislative power over the colonies. I could +not open the statute-book without seeing the actual exercise of it, more +or less, in all cases whatsoever. This possession passed with me for a +title. It does so in all human affairs. No man examines into the defects +of his title to his paternal estate or to his established government. +Indeed, common sense taught me that a legislative authority not actually +limited by the express terms of its foundation, or by its own subsequent +acts, cannot have its powers parcelled out by argumentative +distinctions, so as to enable us to say that here they can and there +they cannot bind. Nobody was so obliging as to produce to me any record +of such distinctions, by compact or otherwise, either at the successive +formation of the several colonies or during the existence of any of +them. If any gentlemen were able to see how one power could be given up +(merely on abstract reasoning) without giving up the rest, I can only +say that they saw further than I could. Nor did I ever presume to +condemn any one for being clear-sighted when I was blind. I praise their +penetration and learning, and hope that their practice has been +correspondent to their theory.</p> + +<p>I had, indeed, very earnest wishes to keep the whole body of this +authority perfect and entire as I found it,—and to keep it so, not for +our advantage solely, but principally for the sake of those on whose +ac<a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" title="224" class="pagenum"></a>count all just authority exists: I mean the people to be governed. +For I thought I saw that many cases might well happen in which the +exercise of every power comprehended in the broadest idea of legislature +might become, in its time and circumstances, not a little expedient for +the peace and union of the colonies amongst themselves, as well as for +their perfect harmony with Great Britain. Thinking so, (perhaps +erroneously, but being honestly of that opinion,) I was at the same time +very sure that the authority of which I was so jealous could not, under +the actual circumstances of our plantations, be at all preserved in any +of its members, but by the greatest reserve in its application, +particularly in those delicate points in which the feelings of mankind +are the most irritable. They who thought otherwise have found a few more +difficulties in their work than (I hope) they were thoroughly aware of, +when they undertook the present business. I must beg leave to observe, +that it is not only the invidious branch of taxation that will be +resisted, but that no other given part of legislative rights can be +exercised, without regard to the general opinion of those who are to be +governed. That general opinion is the vehicle and organ of legislative +omnipotence. Without this, it may be a theory to entertain the mind, but +it is nothing in the direction of affairs. The completeness of the +legislative authority of Parliament <i>over this kingdom</i> is not +questioned; and yet many things indubitably included in the abstract +idea of that power, and which carry no absolute injustice in themselves, +yet being contrary to the opinions and feelings of the people, can as +little be exercised as if Parliament in that case had been possessed of +no right at all. I see no <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" title="225" class="pagenum"></a>abstract reason, which can be given, why the +same power which made and repealed the High Commission Court and the +Star-Chamber might not revive them again; and these courts, warned by +their former fate, might possibly exercise their powers with some degree +of justice. But the madness would be as unquestionable as the competence +of that Parliament which should attempt such things. If anything can be +supposed out of the power of human legislature, it is religion; I admit, +however, that the established religion of this country has been three or +four times altered by act of Parliament, and therefore that a statute +binds even in that case. But we may very safely affirm, that, +notwithstanding this apparent omnipotence, it would be now found as +impossible for King and Parliament to alter the established religion of +this country as it was to King James alone, when he attempted to make +such an alteration without a Parliament. In effect, to follow, not to +force, the public inclination,—to give a direction, a form, a technical +dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, +is the true end of legislature.</p> + +<p>It is so with regard to the exercise of all the powers which our +Constitution knows in any of its parts, and indeed to the substantial +existence of any of the parts themselves. The king's negative to bills +is one of the most indisputed of the royal prerogatives; and it extends +to all cases whatsoever. I am far from certain, that if several laws, +which I know, had fallen under the stroke of that sceptre, that the +public would have had a very heavy loss. But it is not the <i>propriety</i> +of the exercise which is in question. The exercise itself is wisely +forborne. Its repose may be <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" title="226" class="pagenum"></a>the preservation of its existence; and its +existence may be the means of saying the Constitution itself, on an +occasion worthy of bringing it forth.</p> + +<p>As the disputants whose accurate and logical reasonings have brought us +into our present condition think it absurd that powers or members of any +constitution should exist, rarely, if ever, to be exercised, I hope I +shall be excused in mentioning another instance that is material. We +know that the Convocation of the Clergy had formerly been called, and +sat with nearly as much regularity to business as Parliament itself. It +is now called for form only. It sits for the purpose of making some +polite ecclesiastical compliments to the king, and, when that grace is +said, retires and is heard of no more. It is, however, <i>a part of the +Constitution</i>, and may be called out into act and energy, whenever there +is occasion, and whenever those who conjure up that spirit will choose +to abide the consequences. It is wise to permit its legal existence: it +is much wiser to continue it a legal existence only. So truly has +prudence (constituted as the god of this lower world) the entire +dominion over every exercise of power committed into its hands! And yet +I have lived to see prudence and conformity to circumstances wholly set +at nought in our late controversies, and treated as if they were the +most contemptible and irrational of all things. I have heard it an +hundred times very gravely alleged, that, in order to keep power in +wind, it was necessary, by preference, to exert it in those very points +in which it was most likely to be resisted and the least likely to be +productive of any advantage.</p> + +<p>These were the considerations, Gentlemen, which led me early to think, +that, in the comprehensive <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" title="227" class="pagenum"></a>dominion which the Divine Providence had put +into our hands, instead of troubling our understandings with +speculations concerning the unity of empire and the identity or +distinction of legislative powers, and inflaming our passions with the +heat and pride of controversy, it was our duty, in all soberness, to +conform our government to the character and circumstances of the several +people who composed this mighty and strangely diversified mass. I never +was wild enough to conceive that one method would serve for the whole, +that the natives of Hindostan and those of Virginia could be ordered in +the same manner, or that the Cutchery court and the grand jury of Salem +could be regulated on a similar plan. I was persuaded that government +was a practical thing, made for the happiness of mankind, and not to +furnish out a spectacle of uniformity to gratify the schemes of +visionary politicians. Our business was to rule, not to wrangle; and it +would have been a poor compensation that we had triumphed in a dispute, +whilst we lost an empire.</p> + +<p>If there be one fact in the world perfectly clear, it is this,—"that +the disposition of the people of America is wholly averse to any other +than a free government"; and this is indication enough to any honest +statesman how he ought to adapt whatever power he finds in his hands to +their case. If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for +any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,—and that they, +and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter. +If they practically allow me a greater degree of authority over them +than is consistent with any correct ideas of perfect freedom, I ought to +thank them for so great a trust, and not to <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" title="228" class="pagenum"></a>endeavor to prove from +thence that they have reasoned amiss, and that, having gone so far, by +analogy they must hereafter have no enjoyment but by my pleasure.</p> + +<p>If we had seen this done by any others, we should have concluded them +far gone in madness. It is melancholy, as well as ridiculous, to observe +the kind of reasoning with which the public has been amused, in order to +divert our minds from the common sense of our American policy. There are +people who have split and anatomized the doctrine of free government, as +if it were an abstract question concerning metaphysical liberty and +necessity, and not a matter of moral prudence and natural feeling. They +have disputed whether liberty be a positive or a negative idea; whether +it does not consist in being governed by laws, without considering what +are the laws, or who are the makers; whether man has any rights by +Nature; and whether all the property he enjoys be not the alms of his +government, and his life itself their favor and indulgence. Others, +corrupting religion as these have perverted philosophy, contend that +Christians are redeemed into captivity, and the blood of the Saviour of +mankind has been shed to make them the slaves of a few proud and +insolent sinners. These shocking extremes provoking to extremes of +another kind, speculations are let loose as destructive to all authority +as the former are to all freedom; and every government is called tyranny +and usurpation which is not formed on their fancies. In this manner the +stirrers-up of this contention, not satisfied with distracting our +dependencies and filling them with blood and slaughter, are corrupting +our understandings: they are endeavoring to tear up, along with +practical lib<a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" title="229" class="pagenum"></a>erty, all the foundations of human society, all equity and +justice, religion and order.</p> + +<p>Civil freedom, Gentlemen, is not, as many have endeavored to persuade +you, a thing that lies hid in the depth of abstruse science. It is a +blessing and a benefit, not an abstract speculation; and all the just +reasoning that can be upon it is of so coarse a texture as perfectly to +suit the ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy, and of those who +are to defend it. Far from any resemblance to those propositions in +geometry and metaphysics which admit no medium, but must be true or +false in all their latitude, social and civil freedom, like all other +things in common life, are variously mixed and modified, enjoyed in very +different degrees, and shaped into an infinite diversity of forms, +according to the temper and circumstances of every community. The +<i>extreme</i> of liberty (which is its abstract perfection, but its real +fault) obtains nowhere, nor ought to obtain anywhere; because extremes, +as we all know, in every point which relates either to our duties or +satisfactions in life, are destructive both to virtue and enjoyment. +Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be possessed. The degree of +restraint it is impossible in any case to settle precisely. But it ought +to be the constant aim of every wise public counsel to find out by +cautious experiments, and rational, cool endeavors, with how little, not +how much, of this restraint the community can subsist: for liberty is a +good to be improved, and not an evil to be lessened. It is not only a +private blessing of the first order, but the vital spring and energy of +the state itself, which has just so much life and vigor as there is +liberty in it. But whether liberty be advantageous or not, (for I know +it is a fash<a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" title="230" class="pagenum"></a>ion to decry the very principle,) none will dispute that +peace is a blessing; and peace must, in the course of human affairs, be +frequently bought by some indulgence and toleration at least to liberty: +for, as the Sabbath (though of divine institution) was made for man, not +man for the Sabbath, government, which can claim no higher origin or +authority, in its exercise at least, ought to conform to the exigencies +of the time, and the temper and character of the people with whom it is +concerned, and not always to attempt violently to bend the people to +their theories of subjection. The bulk of mankind, on their part, are +not excessively curious concerning any theories whilst they are really +happy; and one sure symptom of an ill-conducted state is the propensity +of the people to resort to them.</p> + +<p>But when subjects, by a long course of such ill conduct, are once +thoroughly inflamed, and the state itself violently distempered, the +people must have some satisfaction to their feelings more solid than a +sophistical speculation on law and government. Such was our situation: +and such a satisfaction was necessary to prevent recourse to arms; it +was necessary towards laying them down; it will be necessary to prevent +the taking them up again and again. Of what nature this satisfaction +ought to be I wish it had been the disposition of Parliament seriously +to consider. It was certainly a deliberation that called for the +exertion of all their wisdom.</p> + +<p>I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the difficulty of +reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful towards the +conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely diversified empire, +with that liberty and safety of the provinces which they must <a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" title="231" class="pagenum"></a>enjoy, +(in opinion and practice at least,) or they will not be provinces at +all. I know, and have long felt, the difficulty of reconciling the +unwieldy haughtiness of a great ruling nation, habituated to command, +pampered by enormous wealth, and confident from a long course of +prosperity and victory, to the high spirit of free dependencies, +animated with the first glow and activity of juvenile heat, and assuming +to themselves, as their birthright, some part of that very pride which +oppresses them. They who perceive no difficulty in reconciling these +tempers (which, however, to make peace, must some way or other be +reconciled) are much above my capacity, or much below the magnitude of +the business. Of one thing I am perfectly clear: that it is not by +deciding the suit, but by compromising the difference, that peace can be +restored or kept. They who would put an end to such quarrels by +declaring roundly in favor of the whole demands of either party have +mistaken, in my humble opinion, the office of a mediator.</p> + +<p>The war is now of full two years' standing: the controversy of many +more. In different periods of the dispute, different methods of +reconciliation were to be pursued. I mean to trouble you with a short +state of things at the most important of these periods, in order to give +you a more distinct idea of our policy with regard to this most delicate +of all objects. The colonies were from the beginning subject to the +legislature of Great Britain on principles which they never examined; +and we permitted to them many local privileges, without asking how they +agreed with that legislative authority. Modes of administration were +formed in an insensible and very unsystematic manner. But they gradually +adapted themselves to <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" title="232" class="pagenum"></a>the varying condition of things. What was first a +single kingdom stretched into an empire; and an imperial +superintendence, of some kind or other, became necessary. Parliament, +from a mere representative of the people, and a guardian of popular +privileges for its own immediate constituents, grew into a mighty +sovereign. Instead of being a control on the crown on its own behalf, it +communicated a sort of strength to the royal authority, which was wanted +for the conservation of a new object, but which could not be safely +trusted to the crown alone. On the other hand, the colonies, advancing +by equal steps, and governed by the same necessity, had formed within +themselves, either by royal instruction or royal charter, assemblies so +exceedingly resembling a parliament, in all their forms, functions, and +powers, that it was impossible they should not imbibe some opinion of a +similar authority.</p> + +<p>At the first designation of these assemblies, they were probably not +intended for anything more (nor perhaps did they think themselves much +higher) than the municipal corporations within this island, to which +some at present love to compare them. But nothing in progression can +rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man +in the cradle of an infant. Therefore, as the colonies prospered and +increased to a numerous and mighty people, spreading over a very great +tract of the globe, it was natural that they should attribute to +assemblies so respectable in their formal constitution some part of the +dignity of the great nations which they represented. No longer tied to +by-laws, these assemblies made acts of all sorts and in all cases +whatsoever. They levied money, not for parochial purposes, <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" title="233" class="pagenum"></a>but upon +regular grants to the crown, following all the rules and principles of a +parliament, to which they approached every day more and more nearly. +Those who think themselves wiser than Providence and stronger than the +course of Nature may complain of all this variation, on the one side or +the other, as their several humors and prejudices may lead them. But +things could not be otherwise; and English colonies must be had on these +terms, or not had at all. In the mean time neither party felt any +inconvenience from this double legislature, to which they had been +formed by imperceptible habits, and old custom, the great support of all +the governments in the world. Though these two legislatures were +sometimes found perhaps performing the very same functions, they did not +very grossly or systematically clash. In all likelihood this arose from +mere neglect, possibly from the natural operation of things, which, left +to themselves, generally fall into their proper order. But whatever was +the cause, it is certain that a regular revenue, by the authority of +Parliament, for the support of civil and military establishments, seems +not to have been thought of until the colonies were too proud to submit, +too strong to be forced, too enlightened not to see all the consequences +which must arise from such a system.</p> + +<p>If ever this scheme of taxation was to be pushed against the +inclinations of the people, it was evident that discussions must arise, +which would let loose all the elements that composed this double +constitution, would show how much each of their members had departed +from its original principles, and would discover contradictions in each +legislature, as well to its own first principles as to its relation to +the other, <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" title="234" class="pagenum"></a>very difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to be +reconciled.</p> + +<p>Therefore, at the first fatal opening of this contest, the wisest course +seemed to be to put an end as soon as possible to the immediate causes +of the dispute, and to quiet a discussion, not easily settled upon clear +principles, and arising from claims which pride would permit neither +party to abandon, by resorting as nearly as possible to the old, +successful course. A mere repeal of the obnoxious tax, with a +declaration of the legislative authority of this kingdom, was then fully +sufficient to procure peace to <i>both sides</i>. Man is a creature of habit, +and, the first breach being of very short continuance, the colonies fell +back exactly into their ancient state. The Congress has used an +expression with regard to this pacification which appears to me truly +significant. After the repeal of the Stamp Act, "the colonies fell," +says this assembly, "into their ancient state of <i>unsuspecting +confidence in the mother country</i>." This unsuspecting confidence is the +true centre of gravity amongst mankind, about which all the parts are at +rest. It is this <i>unsuspecting confidence</i> that removes all +difficulties, and reconciles all the contradictions which occur in the +complexity of all ancient puzzled political establishments. Happy are +the rulers which have the secret of preserving it!</p> + +<p>The whole empire has reason to remember with eternal gratitude the +wisdom and temper of that man and his excellent associates, who, to +recover this confidence, formed a plan of pacification in 1766. That +plan, being built upon the nature of man, and the circumstances and +habits of the two countries, and not on any visionary speculations, +perfectly answered <a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" title="235" class="pagenum"></a>its end, as long as it was thought proper to adhere +to it. Without giving a rude shock to the dignity (well or ill +understood) of this Parliament, they gave perfect content to our +dependencies. Had it not been for the mediatorial spirit and talents of +that great man between such clashing pretensions and passions, we should +then have rushed headlong (I know what I say) into the calamities of +that civil war in which, by departing from his system, we are at length +involved; and we should have been precipitated into that war at a time +when circumstances both at home and abroad were far, very far, more +unfavorable unto us than they were at the breaking out of the present +troubles.</p> + +<p>I had the happiness of giving my first votes in Parliament for that +pacification. I was one of those almost unanimous members who, in the +necessary concessions of Parliament, would as much as possible have +preserved its authority and respected its honor. I could not at once +tear from my heart prejudices which were dear to me, and which bore a +resemblance to virtue. I had then, and I have still, my partialities. +What Parliament gave up I wished to be given as of grace and favor and +affection, and not as a restitution of stolen goods. High dignity +relented as it was soothed; and a benignity from old acknowledged +greatness had its full effect on our dependencies. Our unlimited +declaration of legislative authority produced not a single murmur. If +this undefined power has become odious since that time, and full of +horror to the colonies, it is because the <i>unsuspicious confidence</i> is +lost, and the parental affection, in the bosom of whose boundless +authority they reposed their privileges, is become estranged and +hostile.<a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" title="236" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>It will be asked, if such was then my opinion of the mode of +pacification, how I came to be the very person who moved, not only for a +repeal of all the late coercive statutes, but for mutilating, by a +positive law, the entireness of the legislative power of Parliament, and +cutting off from it the whole right of taxation. I answer, Because a +different state of things requires a different conduct. When the dispute +had gone to these last extremities, (which no man labored more to +prevent than I did,) the concessions which had satisfied in the +beginning could satisfy no longer; because the violation of tacit faith +required explicit security. The same cause which has introduced all +formal compacts and covenants among men made it necessary: I mean, +habits of soreness, jealousy, and distrust. I parted with it as with a +limb, but as a limb to save the body: and I would have parted with more, +if more had been necessary; anything rather than a fruitless, hopeless, +unnatural civil war. This mode of yielding would, it is said, give way +to independency without a war. I am persuaded, from the nature of +things, and from every information, that it would have had a directly +contrary effect. But if it had this effect, I confess that I should +prefer independency without war to independency with it; and I have so +much trust in the inclinations and prejudices of mankind, and so little +in anything else, that I should expect ten times more benefit to this +kingdom from the affection of America, though under a separate +establishment, than from her perfect submission to the crown and +Parliament, accompanied with her terror, disgust, and abhorrence. Bodies +tied together by so unnatural a bond of union as mutual hatred are only +connected to their ruin.<a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" title="237" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>One hundred and ten respectable members of Parliament voted for that +concession. Many not present when the motion was made were of the +sentiments of those who voted. I knew it would then have made peace. I +am not without hopes that it would do so at present, if it were adopted. +No benefit, no revenue, could be lost by it; something might possibly be +gained by its consequences. For be fully assured, that, of all the +phantoms that ever deluded the fond hopes of a credulous world, a +Parliamentary revenue in the colonies is the most perfectly chimerical. +Your breaking them to any subjection, far from relieving your burdens, +(the pretext for this war,) will never pay that military force which +will be kept up to the destruction of their liberties and yours. I risk +nothing in this prophecy.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Gentlemen, you have my opinions on the present state of public affairs. +Mean as they may be in themselves, your partiality has made them of some +importance. Without troubling myself to inquire whether I am under a +formal obligation to it, I have a pleasure in accounting for my conduct +to my constituents. I feel warmly on this subject, and I express myself +as I feel. If I presume to blame any public proceeding, I cannot be +supposed to be personal. Would to God I could be suspected of it! My +fault might be greater, but the public calamity would be less extensive. +If my conduct has not been able to make any impression on the warm part +of that ancient and powerful party with whose support I was not honored +at my election, on my side, my respect, regard, and duty to them is not +at all lessened. I owe the gentlemen who compose it my most humble +service in everything.<a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" title="238" class="pagenum"></a> I hope that whenever any of them were pleased to +command me, that they found me perfectly equal in my obedience. But +flattery and friendship are very different things; and to mislead is not +to serve them. I cannot purchase the favor of any man by concealing from +him what I think his ruin.</p> + +<p>By the favor of my fellow-citizens, I am the representative of an +honest, well-ordered, virtuous city,—of a people who preserve more of +the original English simplicity and purity of manners than perhaps any +other. You possess among you several men and magistrates of large and +cultivated understandings, fit for any employment in any sphere. I do, +to the best of my power, act so as to make myself worthy of so honorable +a choice. If I were ready, on any call of my own vanity or interest, or +to answer any election purpose, to forsake principles (whatever they +are) which I had formed at a mature age, on full reflection, and which +had been confirmed by long experience, I should forfeit the only thing +which makes you pardon so many errors and imperfections in me.</p> + +<p>Not that I think it fit for any one to rely too much on his own +understanding, or to be filled with a presumption not becoming a +Christian man in his own personal stability and rectitude. I hope I am +far from that vain confidence which almost always fails in trial. I know +my weakness in all respects, as much at least as any enemy I have; and I +attempt to take security against it. The only method which has ever been +found effectual to preserve any man against the corruption of nature and +example is an habit of life and communication of councils with the most +virtuous and public-spirited men of the age you live in. Such a society +cannot be kept without ad<a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" title="239" class="pagenum"></a>vantage, or deserted without shame. For this +rule of conduct I may be called in reproach a <i>party man</i>; but I am +little affected with such aspersions. In the way which they call party I +worship the Constitution of your fathers; and I shall never blush for my +political company. All reverence to honor, all idea of what it is, will +be lost out of the world, before it can be imputed as a fault to any +man, that he has been closely connected with those incomparable persons, +living and dead, with whom for eleven years I have constantly thought +and acted. If I have wandered out of the paths of rectitude into those +of interested faction, it was in company with the Saviles, the +Dowdeswells, the Wentworths, the Bentincks; with the Lenoxes, the +Manchesters, the Keppels, the Saunderses; with the temperate, permanent, +hereditary virtue of the whole house of Cavendish: names, among which, +some have extended your fame and empire in arms, and all have fought the +battle of your liberties in fields not less glorious. These, and many +more like these, grafting public principles on private honor, have +redeemed the present age, and would have adorned the most splendid +period in your history. Where could any man, conscious of his own +inability to act alone, and willing to act as he ought to do, have +arranged himself better? If any one thinks this kind of society to be +taken up as the best method of gratifying low personal pride or +ambitious interest, he is mistaken, and knows nothing of the world.</p> + +<p>Preferring this connection, I do not mean to detract in the slightest +degree from others. There are some of those whom I admire at something +of a greater distance, with whom I have had the happiness also +<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" title="240" class="pagenum"></a>perfectly to agree, in almost all the particulars in which I have +differed with some successive administrations; and they are such as it +never can be reputable to any government to reckon among its enemies.</p> + +<p>I hope there are none of you corrupted with the doctrine taught by +wicked men for the worst purposes, and received by the malignant +credulity of envy and ignorance, which is, that the men who act upon the +public stage are all alike, all equally corrupt, all influenced by no +other views than the sordid lure of salary and pension. The thing I know +by experience to be false. Never expecting to find perfection in men, +and not looking for divine attributes in created beings, in my commerce +with my contemporaries I have found much human virtue. I have seen not a +little public spirit, a real subordination of interest to duty, and a +decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and reputation. The age +unquestionably produces (whether in a greater or less number than former +times I know not) daring profligates and insidious hypocrites. What +then? Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found in the +world, because of the mixture of evil that will always be in it? The +smallness of the quantity in currency only heightens the value. They who +raise suspicions on the good on account of the behavior of ill men are +of the party of the latter. The common cant is no justification for +taking this party. I have been deceived, say they, by <i>Titius</i> and +<i>Mævius</i>; I have been the dupe of this pretender or of that mountebank; +and I can trust appearances no longer. But my credulity and want of +discernment cannot, as I conceive, amount to a fair presumption against +any man's integrity. A conscientious person would rather doubt <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241" title="241" class="pagenum"></a>his own +judgment than condemn his species. He would say, "I have observed +without attention, or judged upon erroneous maxims; I trusted to +profession, when I ought to have attended to conduct." Such a man will +grow wise, not malignant, by his acquaintance with the world. But he +that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure +to convict only one. In truth, I should much rather admit those whom at +any time I have disrelished the most to be patterns of perfection than +seek a consolation to my own unworthiness in a general communion of +depravity with all about me.</p> + +<p>That this ill-natured doctrine should be preached by the missionaries of +a court I do not wonder. It answers their purpose. But that it should be +heard among those who pretend to be strong assertors of liberty is not +only surprising, but hardly natural. This moral levelling is a <i>servile +principle</i>. It leads to practical passive obedience far better than all +the doctrines which the pliant accommodation of theology to power has +ever produced. It cuts up by the roots, not only all idea of forcible +resistance, but even of civil opposition. It disposes men to an abject +submission, not by opinion, which may be shaken by argument or altered +by passion, but by the strong ties of public and private interest. For, +if all men who act in a public situation are equally selfish, corrupt, +and venal, what reason can be given for desiring any sort of change, +which, besides the evils which must attend all changes, can be +productive of no possible advantage? The active men in the state are +true samples of the mass. If they are universally depraved, the +commonwealth itself is not sound. We may amuse ourselves with talking as +much as we please of the <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" title="242" class="pagenum"></a>virtue of middle or humble life; that is, we +may place our confidence in the virtue of those who have never been +tried. But if the persons who are continually emerging out of that +sphere be no better than those whom birth has placed above it, what +hopes are there in the remainder of the body which is to furnish the +perpetual succession of the state? All who have ever written on +government are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt liberty +cannot long exist. And, indeed, how is it possible, when those who are +to make the laws, to guard, to enforce, or to obey them, are, by a tacit +confederacy of manners, indisposed to the spirit of all generous and +noble institutions?</p> + +<p>I am aware that the age is not what we all wish. But I am sure that the +only means of checking its precipitate degeneracy is heartily to concur +with whatever is the best in our time, and to have some more correct +standard of judging what that best is than the transient and uncertain +favor of a court. If once we are able to find, and can prevail on +ourselves to strengthen an union of such men, whatever accidentally +becomes indisposed to ill-exercised power, even by the ordinary +operation of human passions, must join with that society, and cannot +long be joined without in some degree assimilating to it. Virtue will +catch as well as vice by contact; and the public stock of honest, manly +principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize +motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough (and for a +worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy to convicted guilt +and declared apostasy.</p> + +<p>This, Gentlemen, has been from the beginning the rule of my conduct; and +I mean to continue it, as <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243" title="243" class="pagenum"></a>long as such a body as I have described can +by any possibility be kept together; for I should think it the most +dreadful of all offences, not only towards the present generation, but +to all the future, if I were to do anything which could make the +minutest breach in this great conservatory of free principles. Those who +perhaps have the same intentions, but are separated by some little +political animosities, will, I hope, discern at last how little +conducive it is to any rational purpose to lower its reputation. For my +part, Gentlemen, from much experience, from no little thinking, and from +comparing a great variety of things, I am thoroughly persuaded that the +last hopes of preserving the spirit of the English Constitution, or of +reuniting the dissipated members of the English race upon a common plan +of tranquillity and liberty, does entirely depend on their firm and +lasting union, and above all on their keeping themselves from that +despair which is so very apt to fall on those whom a violence of +character and a mixture of ambitious views do not support through a +long, painful, and unsuccessful struggle.</p> + +<p>There never, Gentlemen, was a period in which the steadfastness of some +men has been put to so sore a trial. It is not very difficult for +well-formed minds to abandon their interest; but the separation of fame +and virtue is an harsh divorce. Liberty is in danger of being made +unpopular to Englishmen. Contending for an imaginary power, we begin to +acquire the spirit of domination, and to lose the relish of honest +equality. The principles of our forefathers become suspected to us, +because we see them animating the present opposition of our children. +The faults which grow out of the luxuriance of freedom appear much <a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" title="244" class="pagenum"></a>more +shocking to us than the base vices which are generated from the rankness +of servitude. Accordingly, the least resistance to power appears more +inexcusable in our eyes than the greatest abuses of authority. All dread +of a standing military force is looked upon as a superstitious panic. +All shame of calling in foreigners and savages in a civil contest is +worn off. We grow indifferent to the consequences inevitable to +ourselves from the plan of ruling half the empire by a mercenary sword. +We are taught to believe that a desire of domineering over our +countrymen is love to our country, that those who hate civil war abet +rebellion, and that the amiable and conciliatory virtues of lenity, +moderation, and tenderness to the privileges of those who depend on this +kingdom are a sort of treason to the state.</p> + +<p>It is impossible that we should remain long in a situation which breeds +such notions and dispositions without some great alteration in the +national character. Those ingenuous and feeling minds who are so +fortified against all other things, and so unarmed to whatever +approaches in the shape of disgrace, finding these principles, which +they considered as sure means of honor, to be grown into disrepute, will +retire disheartened and disgusted. Those of a more robust make, the +bold, able, ambitious men, who pay some of their court to power through +the people, and substitute the voice of transient opinion in the place +of true glory, will give into the general mode; and those superior +understandings which ought to correct vulgar prejudice will confirm and +aggravate its errors. Many things have been long operating towards a +gradual change in our principles; but this American war has done more in +a very few years than all <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" title="245" class="pagenum"></a>the other causes could have effected in a +century. It is therefore not on its own separate account, but because of +its attendant circumstances, that I consider its continuance, or its +ending in any way but that of an honorable and liberal accommodation, as +the greatest evils which can befall us. For that reason I have troubled +you with this long letter. For that reason I entreat you, again and +again, neither to be persuaded, shamed, or frighted out of the +principles that have hitherto led so many of you to abhor the war, its +cause, and its consequences. Let us not be amongst the first who +renounce the maxims of our forefathers.</p> + +<p>I have the honor to be,</p> + +<p>Gentlemen,</p> + +<p>Your most obedient and faithful humble servant,</p> + +<p>EDMUND BURKE.</p> + +<p>BEACONSFIELD, April 3, 1777.</p> + +<p>P.S. You may communicate this letter in any manner you think proper to +my constituents.<a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" title="246" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" title="247" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="TWO_LETTERS" id="TWO_LETTERS" />TWO LETTERS<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">TO</span><br /> +<br /> +GENTLEMEN IN THE CITY OF BRISTOL.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON THE</span><br /> +<br /> +BILLS DEPENDING IN PARLIAMENT RELATIVE TO THE TRADE OF IRELAND.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">1778.</span></h2> +<p><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" title="248" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" title="249" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LETTER1" id="LETTER1" />LETTERS.</h2> + +<h2><span style="font-size: 75%">TO SAMUEL SPAN, ESQ., MASTER OF THE SOCIETY OF MERCHANTS ADVENTURERS OF +BRISTOL.</span></h2> + + +<p>Sir,—I am honored with your letter of the 13th, in answer to mine, +which accompanied the resolutions of the House relative to the trade of +Ireland.</p> + +<p>You will be so good as to present my best respects to the Society, and +to assure them that it was altogether unnecessary to remind me of the +interest of the constituents. I have never regarded anything else since +I had a seat in Parliament. Having frequently and maturely considered +that interest, and stated it to myself in almost every point of view, I +am persuaded, that, under the present circumstances, I cannot more +effectually pursue it than by giving all the support in my power to the +propositions which I lately transmitted to the Hall.</p> + +<p>The fault I find in the scheme is, that it falls extremely short of that +liberality in the commercial system which I trust will one day be +adopted. If I had not considered the present resolutions merely as +preparatory to better things, and as a means of showing, experimentally, +that justice to others is not always folly to ourselves, I should have +contented myself with receiving them in a cold and silent acquiescence. +Separately considered, they are matters of no very great importance. But +they aim, however imperfectly, at a right principle. I submit to the +re<a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" title="250" class="pagenum"></a>straint to appease prejudice; I accept the enlargement, so far as it +goes, as the result of reason and of sound policy.</p> + +<p>We cannot be insensible of the calamities which have been brought upon +this nation by an obstinate adherence to narrow and restrictive plans of +government. I confess, I cannot prevail on myself to take them up +precisely at a time when the most decisive experience has taught the +rest of the world to lay them down. The propositions in question did not +originate from me, or from my particular friends. But when things are so +right in themselves, I hold it my duty not to inquire from what hands +they come. I opposed the American measures upon the very same principle +on which I support those that relate to Ireland. I was convinced that +the evils which have arisen from the adoption of the former would be +infinitely aggravated by the rejection of the latter.</p> + +<p>Perhaps gentlemen are not yet fully aware of the situation of their +country, and what its exigencies absolutely require. I find that we are +still disposed to talk at our ease, and as if all things were to be +regulated by our good pleasure. I should consider it as a fatal symptom, +if, in our present distressed and adverse circumstances, we should +persist in the errors which are natural only to prosperity. One cannot, +indeed, sufficiently lament the continuance of that spirit of delusion, +by which, for a long time past, we have thought fit to measure our +necessities by our inclinations. Moderation, prudence, and equity are +far more suitable to our condition than loftiness, and confidence, and +rigor. We are threatened by enemies of no small magnitude, whom, if we +think fit, we may despise, as we have despised others; but they <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" title="251" class="pagenum"></a>are +enemies who can only cease to be truly formidable by our entertaining a +due respect for their power. Our danger will not be lessened by our +shutting our eyes to it; nor will our force abroad be increased by +rendering ourselves feeble and divided at home.</p> + +<p>There is a dreadful schism in the British nation. Since we are not able +to reunite the empire, it is our business to give all possible vigor and +soundness to those parts of it which are still content to be governed by +our councils. Sir, it is proper to inform you that our measures <i>must be +healing</i>. Such a degree of strength must be communicated to all the +members of the state as may enable them to defend themselves, and to +coöperate in the defence of the whole. Their temper, too, must be +managed, and their good affections cultivated. They may then be disposed +to bear the load with cheerfulness, as a contribution towards what may +be called with truth and propriety, and not by an empty form of words, +<i>a common cause</i>. Too little dependence cannot be had, at this time of +day, on names and prejudices. The eyes of mankind are opened, and +communities must be held together by an evident and solid interest. God +forbid that our conduct should demonstrate to the world that Great +Britain can in no instance whatsoever be brought to a sense of rational +and equitable policy but by coercion and force of arms!</p> + +<p>I wish you to recollect with what powers of concession, relatively to +commerce, as well as to legislation, his Majesty's commissioners to the +United Colonies have sailed from England within this week. Whether these +powers are sufficient for their purposes it is not now my business to +examine. But we all know that our resolutions in favor of Ireland are +trifling and <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" title="252" class="pagenum"></a>insignificant, when compared with the concessions to the +Americans. At such a juncture, I would implore every man, who retains +the least spark of regard to the yet remaining honor and security of +this country, not to compel others to an imitation of their conduct, or +by passion and violence to force them to seek in the territories of the +separation that freedom and those advantages which they are not to look +for whilst they remain under the wings of their ancient government.</p> + +<p>After all, what are the matters we dispute with so much warmth? Do we in +these resolutions <i>bestow</i> anything upon Ireland? Not a shilling. We +only consent to <i>leave</i> to them, in two or three instances, the use of +the natural faculties which God has given to them, and to all mankind. +Is Ireland united to the crown of Great Britain for no other purpose +than that we should counteract the bounty of Providence in her favor? +and in proportion as that bounty has been liberal, that we are to regard +it as an evil, which is to be met with in every sort of corrective? To +say that Ireland interferes with us, and therefore must be checked, is, +in my opinion, a very mistaken, and a very dangerous principle. I must +beg leave to repeat, what I took the liberty of suggesting to you in my +last letter, that Ireland is a country in the same climate and of the +same natural qualities and productions with this, and has consequently +no other means of growing wealthy in herself, or, in other words, of +being useful to us, but by doing the very same things which we do for +the same purposes. I hope that in Great Britain we shall always pursue, +without exception, <i>every</i> means of prosperity, and, of course, that +Ireland <i>will</i> interfere with us in some<a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" title="253" class="pagenum"></a>thing or other: for either, in +order to <i>limit</i> her, we <i>must restrain</i> ourselves, or we must fall into +that shocking conclusion, that we are to keep our yet remaining +dependency under a general and indiscriminate restraint for the mere +purpose of oppression. Indeed, Sir, England and Ireland may flourish +together. The world is large enough for us both. Let it be our care not +to make ourselves too little for it.</p> + +<p>I know it is said, that the people of Ireland do not pay the same taxes, +and therefore ought not in equity to enjoy the same benefits with this. +I had hopes that the unhappy phantom of a compulsory <i>equal taxation</i> +had haunted us long enough. I do assure you, that, until it is entirely +banished from our imaginations, (where alone it has, or can have, any +existence,) we shall never cease to do ourselves the most substantial +injuries. To that argument of equal taxation I can only say, that +Ireland pays as many taxes as those who are the best judges of her +powers are of opinion she can bear. To bear more, she must have more +ability; and, in the order of Nature, the advantage must <i>precede</i> the +charge. This disposition of things being the law of God, neither you nor +I <i>can</i> alter it. So that, if you will have more help from Ireland, you +must <i>previously</i> supply her with more means. I believe it will be +found, that, if men are suffered freely to cultivate their natural +advantages, a virtual equality of contribution will come in its own +time, and will flow by an easy descent through its own proper and +natural channels. An attempt to disturb that course, and to force +Nature, will only bring on universal discontent, distress, and +confusion.</p> + +<p>You tell me, Sir, that you prefer an union with<a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" title="254" class="pagenum"></a> Ireland to the little +regulations which are proposed in Parliament. This union is a great +question of state, to which, when it comes properly before me in my +Parliamentary capacity, I shall give an honest and unprejudiced +consideration. However, it is a settled rule with me, to make the most +of my <i>actual situation</i>, and not to refuse to do a proper thing because +there is something else more proper which I am not able to do. This +union is a business of difficulty, and, on the principles of your +letter, a business impracticable. Until it can be matured into a +feasible and desirable scheme, I wish to have as close an union of +interest and affection with Ireland as I can have; and that, I am sure, +is a far better thing than any nominal union of government.</p> + +<p>France, and indeed most extensive empires, which by various designs and +fortunes have grown into one great mass, contain many provinces that are +very different from each other in privileges and modes of government; +and they raise their supplies in different ways, in different +proportions, and under different authorities: yet none of them are for +this reason curtailed of their natural rights; but they carry on trade +and manufactures with perfect equality. In some way or other the true +balance is found; and all of them are properly poised and harmonized. +How much have you lost by the participation of Scotland in all your +commerce? The external trade of England has more than doubled since that +period; and I believe your internal (which is the most advantageous) has +been augmented at least fourfold. Such virtue there is in liberality of +sentiment, that you have grown richer even by the partnership of +poverty.<a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" title="255" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>If you think that this participation was a loss, commercially +considered, but that it has been compensated by the share which Scotland +has taken in defraying the public charge, I believe you have not very +carefully looked at the public accounts. Ireland, Sir, pays a great deal +more than Scotland, and is perhaps as much and as effectually united to +England as Scotland is. But if Scotland, instead of paying little, had +paid nothing at all, we should be gainers, not losers, by acquiring the +hearty coöperation of an active, intelligent people towards the increase +of the common stock, instead of our being employed in watching and +counteracting them, and their being employed in watching and +counteracting us, with the peevish and churlish jealousy of rivals and +enemies on both sides.</p> + +<p>I am sure, Sir, that the commercial experience of the merchants of +Bristol will soon disabuse them of the prejudice, that they can trade no +longer, if countries more lightly taxed are permitted to deal in the +same commodities at the same markets. You know, that, in fact, you trade +very largely where you are met by the goods of all nations. You even pay +high duties on the import of your goods, and afterwards undersell +nations less taxed, at their own markets, and where goods of the same +kind are not charged at all. If it were otherwise, you could trade very +little. You know that the price of all sorts of manufacture is not a +great deal enhanced (except to the domestic consumer) by any taxes paid +in this country. This I might very easily prove.</p> + +<p>The same consideration will relieve you from the apprehension you +express with relation to sugars, and the difference of the duties paid +here and in Ire<a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" title="256" class="pagenum"></a>land. Those duties affect the interior consumer only, +and for obvious reasons, relative to the interest of revenue itself, +they must be proportioned to his ability of payment; but in all cases in +which sugar can be an <i>object of commerce</i>, and therefore (in this view) +of rivalship, you are sensible that you are at least on a par with +Ireland. As to your apprehensions concerning the more advantageous +situation of Ireland for some branches of commerce, (for it is so but +for some,) I trust you will not find them more serious. Milford Haven, +which is at your door, may serve to show you that the mere advantage of +ports, is not the thing which shifts the seat of commerce from one part +of the world to the other. If I thought you inclined to take up this +matter on local considerations, I should state to you, that I do not +know any part of the kingdom so well situated for an advantageous +commerce with Ireland as Bristol, and that none would be so likely to +profit of its prosperity as our city. But your profit and theirs must +concur. Beggary and bankruptcy are not the circumstances which invite to +an intercourse with that or with any country; and I believe it will be +found invariably true, that the superfluities of a rich nation furnish a +better object of trade than the necessities of a poor one. It is the +interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.</p> + +<p>The true ground of fear, in my opinion, is this: that Ireland, from the +vicious system of its internal polity, will be a long time before it can +derive any benefit from the liberty now granted, or from any thing else. +But, as I do not vote advantages in hopes that they may not be enjoyed, +I will not lay any stress upon this consideration. I rather wish that +the Par<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" title="257" class="pagenum"></a>liament of Ireland may, in its own wisdom, remove these +impediments, and put their country in a condition to avail itself of its +natural advantages. If they do not, the fault is with them, and not with +us.</p> + +<p>I have written this long letter in order to give all possible +satisfaction to my constituents with regard to the part I have taken in +this affair. It gave me inexpressible concern to find that my conduct +had been a cause of uneasiness to any of them. Next to my honor and +conscience, I have nothing so near and dear to me as their approbation. +However, I had much rather run the risk of displeasing than of injuring +them,—if I am driven to make such an option. You obligingly lament that +you are not to have me for your advocate; but if I had been capable of +acting as an advocate in opposition to a plan so perfectly consonant to +my known principles, and to the opinions I had publicly declared on an +hundred occasions, I should only disgrace myself, without supporting, +with the smallest degree of credit or effect, the cause you wished me to +undertake. I should have lost the only thing which can make such +abilities as mine of any use to the world now or hereafter: I mean that +authority which is derived from an opinion that a member speaks the +language of truth and sincerity, and that he is not ready to take up or +lay down a great political system for the convenience of the hour, that +he is in Parliament to support his opinion of the public good, and does +not form his opinion in order to get into Parliament, or to continue in +it. It is in a great measure for your sake that I wish to preserve this +character. Without it, I am sure, I should be ill able to discharge, by +any service, the smallest part of that debt of gratitude and affection +which I owe you <a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" title="258" class="pagenum"></a>for the great and honorable trust you have reposed in +me.</p> + +<p>I am, with the highest regard and esteem, Sir,</p> + +<p>Your most obedient and humble servant,</p> + +<p>E.B.</p> + +<p>BEACONSFIELD, 23rd April, 1778.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<p><a name="LETTER2" id="LETTER2" /></p> +<h2><span style="font-size: 75%">COPY OF A LETTER TO MESSRS. ******* ****** AND CO., BRISTOL.</span></h2> + +<p>Gentlemen,—</p> + +<p>It gives me the most sensible concern to find that my vote on the +resolutions relative to the trade of Ireland has not been fortunate +enough to meet with your approbation. I have explained at large the +grounds of my conduct on that occasion in my letters to the Merchants' +Hall; but my very sincere regard and esteem for you will not permit me +to let the matter pass without an explanation which is particular to +yourselves, and which I hope will prove satisfactory to you.</p> + +<p>You tell me that the conduct of your late member is not much wondered +at; but you seem to be at a loss to account for mine; and you lament +that I have taken so decided a part <i>against</i> my constituents.</p> + +<p>This is rather an heavy imputation. Does it, then, really appear to you +that the propositions to which you refer are, on the face of them, so +manifestly wrong, and so certainly injurious to the trade and +manufactures of Great Britain, and particularly to yours, that no man +could think of proposing or supporting them, except from resentment to +you, or from <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" title="259" class="pagenum"></a>some other oblique motive? If you suppose your late +member, or if you suppose me, to act upon other reasons than we choose +to avow, to what do you attribute the conduct of the <i>other</i> members, +who in the beginning almost unanimously adopted those resolutions? To +what do you attribute the strong part taken by the ministers, and, along +with the ministers, by several of their most declared opponents? This +does not indicate a ministerial job, a party design, or a provincial or +local purpose. It is, therefore, not so absolutely clear that the +measure is wrong, or likely to be injurious to the true interests of any +place or any person.</p> + +<p>The reason, Gentlemen, for taking this step, at this time, is but too +obvious and too urgent. I cannot imagine that you forget the great war +which has been carried on with so little success (and, as I thought, +with so little policy) in America, or that you are not aware of the +other great wars which are impending. Ireland has been called upon to +repel the attacks of enemies of no small power, brought upon her by +councils in which she has had no share. The very purpose and declared +object of that original war, which has brought other wars and other +enemies on Ireland, was not very flattering to her dignity, her +interest, or to the very principle of her liberty. Yet she submitted +patiently to the evils she suffered from an attempt to subdue to <i>your</i> +obedience countries whose very commerce was not open to her. America was +to be conquered in order that Ireland should <i>not</i> trade thither; whilst +the miserable trade which she is permitted to carry on to other places +has been torn to pieces in the struggle. In this situation, are we +neither to suffer her to have any real interest <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" title="260" class="pagenum"></a>in our quarrel, or to +be flattered with the hope of any future means of bearing the burdens +which she is to incur in defending herself against enemies which we have +brought upon her?</p> + +<p>I cannot set my face against such arguments. Is it quite fair to suppose +that I have no other motive for yielding to them but a desire of acting +<i>against</i> my constituents? It is for <i>you</i>, and for <i>your</i> interest, as +a dear, cherished, and respected part of a valuable whole, that I have +taken my share in this question. You do not, you cannot, suffer by it. +If honesty be true policy with regard to the transient interest of +individuals, it is much more certainly so with regard to the permanent +interests of communities. I know that it is but too natural for us to +see our own <i>certain</i> ruin in the <i>possible</i> prosperity of other people. +It is hard to persuade us that everything which is <i>got</i> by another is +not <i>taken</i> from ourselves. But it is fit that We should get the better +of these suggestions, which come from what is not the best and soundest +part of our nature, and that we should form to ourselves a way of +thinking, more rational, more just, and more religious. Trade is not a +limited thing: as if the objects of mutual demand and consumption could +not stretch beyond the bounds of our jealousies. God has given the earth +to the children of men, and He has undoubtedly, in giving it to them, +given them what is abundantly sufficient for all their exigencies: not a +scanty, but a most liberal, provision for them all. The Author of our +nature has written it strongly in that nature, and has promulgated the +same law in His written word, that man shall eat his bread by his labor; +and I am persuaded that no man, and no combination of men, for their own +ideas of their par<a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" title="261" class="pagenum"></a>ticular profit, can, without great impiety, undertake +to say that he <i>shall not</i> do so,—that they have no sort of right +either to prevent the labor or to withhold the bread. Ireland having +received no <i>compensation</i>, directly or indirectly, for any restraints +on their trade, ought not, in justice or common honesty, to be made +subject to such restraints. I do not mean to impeach the right of the +Parliament of Great Britain to make laws for the trade of Ireland: I +only speak of what laws it is right for Parliament to make.</p> + +<p>It is nothing to an oppressed people, to say that in part they are +protected at our charge. The military force which shall be kept up in +order to cramp the natural faculties of a people, and to prevent their +arrival to their utmost prosperity, is the instrument of their +servitude, not the means of their protection. To protect men is to +forward, and not to restrain, their improvement. Else, what is it more +than to avow to them, and to the world, that you guard them from others +only to make them a prey to yourself? This fundamental nature of +protection does not belong to free, but to all governments, and is as +valid in Turkey as in Great Britain. No government ought to own that it +exists for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people, or that +there is such a principle involved in its policy.</p> + +<p>Under the impression of these sentiments, (and not as wanting every +attention to my constituents which affection and gratitude could +inspire,) I voted for these bills which give you so much trouble. I +voted for them, not as doing complete justice to Ireland, but as being +something less unjust than the general prohibition which has hitherto +prevailed. I hear <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" title="262" class="pagenum"></a>some discourse as if, in one or two paltry duties on +materials, Ireland had a preference, and that those who set themselves +against this act of scanty justice assert that they are only contending +for an <i>equality</i>. What equality? Do they forget that the whole woollen +manufacture of Ireland, the most extensive and profitable of any, and +the natural staple of that kingdom, has been in a manner so destroyed by +restrictive laws of ours, and (at our persuasion, and on our promises) +by restrictive laws of <i>their own</i>, that in a few years, it is probable, +they will not be able to wear a coat of their own fabric? Is this +equality? Do gentlemen forget that the understood faith upon which they +were persuaded to such an unnatural act has not been kept,—but a +linen-manufacture has been set up, and highly encouraged, against them? +Is this equality? Do they forget the state of the trade of Ireland in +beer, so great an article of consumption, and which now stands in so +mischievous a position with regard to their revenue, their manufacture, +and their agriculture? Do they find any equality in all this? Yet, if +the least step is taken towards doing them common justice in the +slightest articles for the most limited markets, a cry is raised, as if +we were going to be ruined by partiality to Ireland.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, I know that the deficiency in these arguments is made up (not +by you, but by others) by the usual resource on such occasions, the +confidence in military force and superior power. But that ground of +confidence, which at no time was perfectly just, or the avowal of it +tolerably decent, is at this time very unseasonable. Late experience has +shown that it cannot be altogether relied upon; and many, if not all, of +our present difficulties have arisen from put<a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" title="263" class="pagenum"></a>ting our trust in what may +very possibly fail, and, if it should fail, leaves those who are hurt by +such a reliance without pity. Whereas honesty and justice, reason and +equity, go a very great way in securing prosperity to those who use +them, and, in case of failure, secure the best retreat and the most +honorable consolations.</p> + +<p>It is very unfortunate that we should consider those as rivals, whom we +ought to regard as fellow-laborers in a common cause. Ireland has never +made a single step in its progress towards prosperity, by which you have +not had a share, and perhaps the greatest share, in the benefit. That +progress has been chiefly owing to her own natural advantages, and her +own efforts, which, after a long time, and by slow degrees, have +prevailed in some measure over the mischievous systems which have been +adopted. Far enough she is still from having arrived even at an ordinary +state of perfection; and if our jealousies were to be converted into +politics as systematically as some would have them, the trade of Ireland +would vanish out of the system of commerce. But, believe me, if Ireland +is beneficial to you, it is so not from the parts in which it is +restrained, but from those in which it is left free, though not left +unrivalled. The greater its freedom, the greater must be your advantage. +If you should lose in one way, you will gain in twenty.</p> + +<p>Whilst I remain under this unalterable and powerful conviction, you will +not wonder at the <i>decided</i> part I take. It is my custom so to do, when +I see my way clearly before me, and when I know that I am not misled by +any passion or any personal interest, which in this case I am very sure +I am not. I find that disagreeable things are circulated among my +constitu<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" title="264" class="pagenum"></a>ents; and I wish my sentiments, which form my justification, +may be equally general with the circulation against me. I have the honor +to be, with the greatest regard and esteem, Gentlemen,</p> + +<p>Your most obedient and humble servant,</p> + +<p>E.B.</p> + +<p>Westminster, May 2, 1778.</p> + +<p>I send the bills.<a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" title="265" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INDEPENDENCE_OF_PARLIAMENT" id="INDEPENDENCE_OF_PARLIAMENT" />SPEECH<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">ON PRESENTING TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">(ON THE 11TH FEBRUARY, 1780)</span><br /> +<br /> +A PLAN<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">FOR</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%">THE BETTER SECURITY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF PARLIAMENT, AND THE +ECONOMICAL REFORMATION OF THE CIVIL AND OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS</span></h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" title="266" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" title="267" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + +<p>Mr. Speaker,—I rise, in acquittal of my engagement to the House, in +obedience to the strong and just requisition of my constituents, and, I +am persuaded, in conformity to the unanimous wishes of the whole nation, +to submit to the wisdom of Parliament "A Plan of Reform in the +Constitution of Several Parts of the Public Economy."</p> + +<p>I have endeavored that this plan should include, in its execution, a +considerable reduction of improper expense; that it should effect a +conversion of unprofitable titles into a productive estate; that it +should lead to, and indeed almost compel, a provident administration of +such sums of public money as must remain under discretionary trusts; +that it should render the incurring debts on the civil establishment +(which must ultimately affect national strength and national credit) so +very difficult as to become next to impracticable.</p> + +<p>But what, I confess, was uppermost with me, what I bent the whole force +of my mind to, was the reduction of that corrupt influence which is +itself the perennial spring of all prodigality and of all +disorder,—which loads us more than millions of debt,—which takes away +vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of +authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our Constitution.</p> + +<p>Sir, I assure you very solemnly, and with a very <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" title="268" class="pagenum"></a>clear conscience, that +nothing in the world has led me to such an undertaking but my zeal for +the honor of this House, and the settled, habitual, systematic affection +I bear to the cause and to the principles of government.</p> + +<p>I enter perfectly into the nature and consequences of my attempt, and I +advance to it with a tremor that shakes me to the inmost fibre of my +frame. I feel that I engage in a business, in itself most ungracious, +totally wide of the course of prudent conduct, and, I really think, the +most completely adverse that can be imagined to the natural turn and +temper of my own mind. I know that all parsimony is of a quality +approaching to unkindness, and that (on some person or other) every +reform must operate as a sort of punishment. Indeed, the whole class of +the severe and restrictive virtues are at a market almost too high for +humanity. What is worse, there are very few of those virtues which are +not capable of being imitated, and even outdone in many of their most +striking effects, by the worst of vices. Malignity and envy will carve +much more deeply, and finish much more sharply, in the work of +retrenchment, than frugality and providence. I do not, therefore, wonder +that gentlemen have kept away from such a task, as well from good-nature +as from prudence. Private feeling might, indeed, be overborne by +legislative reason; and a man of a long-sighted and a strong-nerved +humanity might bring himself not so much to consider from whom he takes +a superfluous enjoyment as for whom in the end he may preserve the +absolute necessaries of life.</p> + +<p>But it is much more easy to reconcile this measure in humanity than to +bring it to any agreement with <a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" title="269" class="pagenum"></a>prudence. I do not mean that little, +selfish, pitiful, bastard thing which sometimes goes by the name of a +family in which it is not legitimate and to which it is a disgrace;—I +mean even that public and enlarged prudence, which, apprehensive of +being disabled from rendering acceptable services to the world, +withholds itself from those that are invidious. Gentlemen who are, with +me, verging towards the decline of life, and are apt to form their ideas +of kings from kings of former times, might dread the anger of a reigning +prince;—they who are more provident of the future, or by being young +are more interested in it, might tremble at the resentment of the +successor; they might see a long, dull, dreary, unvaried visto of +despair and exclusion, for half a century, before them. This is no +pleasant prospect at the outset of a political journey.</p> + +<p>Besides this, Sir, the private enemies to be made in all attempts of +this kind are innumerable; and their enmity will be the more bitter, and +the more dangerous too, because a sense of dignity will oblige them to +conceal the cause of their resentment. Very few men of great families +and extensive connections but will feel the smart of a cutting reform, +in some close relation, some bosom friend, some pleasant acquaintance, +some dear, protected dependant. Emolument is taken from some; patronage +from others; objects of pursuit from all. Men forced into an involuntary +independence will abhor the authors of a blessing which in their eyes +has so very near a resemblance to a curse. When officers are removed, +and the offices remain, you may set the gratitude of some against the +anger of others, you may oppose the friends you oblige against the +enemies you provoke. But ser<a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" title="270" class="pagenum"></a>vices of the present sort create no +attachments. The individual good felt in a public benefit is +comparatively so small, comes round through such an involved labyrinth +of intricate and tedious revolutions, whilst a present personal +detriment is so heavy, where it falls, and so instant in its operation, +that the cold commendation of a public advantage never was and never +will be a match for the quick sensibility of a private loss; and you may +depend upon it, Sir, that, when many people have an interest in railing, +sooner or later, they will bring a considerable degree of unpopularity +upon any measure. So that, for the present at least, the reformation +will operate against the reformers; and revenge (as against them at the +least) will produce all the effects of corruption.</p> + +<p>This, Sir, is almost always the case, where the plan has complete +success. But how stands the matter in the mere attempt? Nothing, you +know, is more common than for men to wish, and call loudly too, for a +reformation, who, when it arrives, do by no means like the severity of +its aspect. Reformation is one of those pieces which must be put at some +distance in order to please. Its greatest favorers love it better in the +abstract than in the substance. When any old prejudice of their own, or +any interest that they value, is touched, they become scrupulous, they +become captious; and every man has his separate exception. Some pluck +out the black hairs, some the gray; one point must be given up to one, +another point must be yielded to another; nothing is suffered to prevail +upon its own principle; the whole is so frittered down and disjointed, +that scarcely a trace of the original scheme remains. Thus, between the +resistance of power, and the unsystematical process of pop<a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" title="271" class="pagenum"></a>ularity, the +undertaker and the undertaking are both exposed, and the poor reformer +is hissed off the stags both by friends and foes.</p> + +<p>Observe, Sir, that the apology for my undertaking (an apology which, +though long, is no longer than necessary) is not grounded on my want of +the fullest sense of the difficult and invidious nature of the task I +undertake. I risk odium, if I succeed, and contempt, if I fail. My +excuse must rest in mine and your conviction of the absolute, urgent +<i>necessity</i> there is that something of the kind should be done. If there +is any sacrifice to be made, either of estimation or of fortune, the +smallest is the best. Commanders-in-chief are not to be put upon the +forlorn hope. But, indeed, it is necessary that the attempt should be +made. It is necessary from our own political circumstances; it is +necessary from the operations of the enemy; it is necessary from the +demands of the people, whose desires, when they do not militate with the +stable and eternal rules of justice and reason, (rules which are above +us and above them,) ought to be as a law to a House of Commons.</p> + +<p>As to our circumstances, I do not mean to aggravate the difficulties of +them by the strength of any coloring whatsoever. On the contrary, I +observe, and observe with pleasure, that our affairs rather wear a more +promising aspect than they did on the opening of this session. We have +had some leading successes. But those who rate them at the highest +(higher a great deal, indeed, than I dare to do) are of opinion, that, +upon the ground of such advantages, we cannot at this time hope to make +any treaty of peace which would not be ruinous and completely +disgraceful. In such an anxious state of things, if <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" title="272" class="pagenum"></a>dawnings of success +serve to animate our diligence, they are good; if they tend to increase +our presumption, they are worse than defeats. The state of our affairs +shall, then, be as promising as any one may choose to conceive it: it +is, however, but promising. We must recollect, that, with but half of +our natural strength, we are at war against confederated powers who have +singly threatened us with ruin; we must recollect, that, whilst we are +left naked on one side, our other flank is uncovered by any alliance; +that, whilst we are weighing and balancing our successes against our +losses, we are accumulating debt to the amount of at least fourteen +millions in the year. That loss is certain.</p> + +<p>I have no wish to deny that our successes are as brilliant as any one +chooses to make them; our resources, too, may, for me, be as +unfathomable as they are represented. Indeed, they are just whatever the +people possess and will submit to pay. Taxing is an easy business. Any +projector can contrive new impositions; any bungler can add to the old. +But is it altogether wise to have no other bounds to your impositions +than the patience of those who are to bear them?</p> + +<p>All I claim upon the subject of your resources is this: that they are +not likely to be increased by wasting them. I think I shall be permitted +to assume that a system of frugality will not lessen your riches, +whatever they may be. I believe it will not be hotly disputed, that +those resources which lie heavy on the subject ought not to be objects +of preference,—that they ought not to be the <i>very first choice</i>, to an +honest representative of the people.</p> + +<p>This is all, Sir, that I shall say upon our circum<a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" title="273" class="pagenum"></a>stances and our +resources: I mean to say a little more on the operations of the enemy, +because this matter seems to me very natural in our present +deliberation. When I look to the other side of the water, I cannot help +recollecting what Pyrrhus said, on reconnoitring the Roman camp:—"These +barbarians have nothing barbarous in their discipline." When I look, as +I have pretty carefully looked, into the proceedings of the French king, +I am sorry to say it, I see nothing of the character and genius of +arbitrary finance, none of the bold frauds of bankrupt power, none of +the wild struggles and plunges of despotism in distress,—no lopping off +from the capital of debt, no suspension of interest, no robbery under +the name of loan, no raising the value, no debasing the substance of the +coin. I see neither Louis the Fourteenth nor Louis the Fifteenth. On the +contrary, I behold, with astonishment, rising before me, by the very +hands of arbitrary power, and in the very midst of war and confusion, a +regular, methodical system of public credit; I behold a fabric laid on +the natural and solid foundations of trust and confidence among men, and +rising, by fair gradations, order over order, according to the just +rules of symmetry and art. What a reverse of things! Principle, method, +regularity, economy, frugality, justice to individuals, and care of the +people are the resources with which France makes war upon Great Britain. +God avert the omen! But if we should see any genius in war and politics +arise in France to second what is done in the bureau!—I turn my eyes +from the consequences.</p> + +<p>The noble lord in the blue ribbon, last year, treated all this with +contempt. He never could conceive it <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" title="274" class="pagenum"></a>possible that the French minister +of finance could go through that year with a loan of but seventeen +hundred thousand pounds, and that he should be able to fund that loan +without any tax. The second year, however, opens the very same scene. A +small loan, a loan of no more than two millions five hundred thousand +pounds, is to carry our enemies through the service of this year also. +No tax is raised to fund that debt; no tax is raised for the current +services. I am credibly informed that there is no anticipation +whatsoever. Compensations<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31" /><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor" +title="This term comprehends various retributions made to persons whose offices are taken away, or who in any other +way suffer by the new arrangements that are made.">[31]</a> are correctly made. Old debts continue to +be sunk as in the time of profound peace. Even payments which their +treasury had been authorized to suspend during the time of war are not +suspended.</p> + +<p>A general reform, executed through every <i>department of the revenue</i>, +creates an annual income of more than half a million, whilst it +facilitates and simplifies all the functions of administration. The +king's <i>household</i>—at the remotest avenues to which all reformation has +been hitherto stopped, that household which has been the stronghold of +prodigality, the virgin fortress which was never before attacked—has +been not only not defended, but it has, even in the forms, been +surrendered by the king to the economy of his minister. No capitulation; +no reserve. Economy has entered in triumph into the public splendor of +the monarch, into his private amusements, into the appointments of his +nearest and highest relations. Economy and public spirit have made a +beneficent and an honest spoil: they have plundered from ex<a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" title="275" class="pagenum"></a>travagance +and luxury, for the use of substantial service, a revenue of near four +hundred thousand pounds. The reform of the finances, joined to this +reform of the court, gives to the public nine hundred thousand pounds a +year, and upwards.</p> + +<p>The minister who does these things is a great man; but the king who +desires that they should be done is a far greater. We must do justice to +our enemies: these are the acts of a patriot king. I am not in dread of +the vast armies of France; I am not in dread of the gallant spirit of +its brave and numerous nobility; I am not alarmed even at the great navy +which has been so miraculously created. All these things Louis the +Fourteenth had before. With all these things, the French monarchy has +more than once fallen prostrate at the feet of the public faith of Great +Britain. It was the want of public credit which disabled France from +recovering after her defeats, or recovering even from her victories and +triumphs. It was a prodigal court, it was an ill-ordered revenue, that +sapped the foundations of all her greatness. Credit cannot exist under +the arm of necessity. Necessity strikes at credit, I allow, with a +heavier and quicker blow under an arbitrary monarchy than under a +limited and balanced government; but still necessity and credit are +natural enemies, and cannot be long reconciled in any situation. From +necessity and corruption, a free state may lose the spirit of that +complex constitution which is the foundation of confidence. On the other +hand, I am far from being sure that a monarchy, when once it is properly +regulated, may not for a long time furnish a foundation for credit upon +the solidity of its maxims, though it affords no ground of trust in its +institutions. I am <a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" title="276" class="pagenum"></a>afraid I see in England, and in France, something +like a beginning of both these things. I wish I may be found in a +mistake.</p> + +<p>This very short and very imperfect state of what is now going on in +France (the last circumstances of which I received in about eight days +after the registry of the edict<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32" /><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor" +title="Edict registered 29th January, 1780.">[32]</a>) I do not, Sir, lay before you for +any invidious purpose. It is in order to excite in us the spirit of a +noble emulation. Let the nations make war upon each other, (since we +must make war,) not with a low and vulgar malignity, but by a +competition of virtues. This is the only way by which both parties can +gain by war. The French have imitated us: let us, through them, imitate +ourselves,—ourselves in our better and happier days. If public +frugality, under whatever men, or in whatever mode of government, is +national strength, it is a strength which our enemies are in possession +of before us.</p> + +<p>Sir, I am well aware that the state and the result of the French economy +which I have laid before you are even now lightly treated by some who +ought never to speak but from information. Pains have not been spared to +represent them as impositions on the public. Let me tell you, Sir, that +the creation of a navy, and a two years' war without taxing, are a very +singular species of imposture. But be it so. For what end does Necker +carry on this delusion? Is it to lower the estimation of the crown he +serves, and to render his own administration contemptible? No! No! He is +conscious that the sense of mankind is so clear and decided in favor of +economy, and of the weight and value of its resources, that he turns +himself to every species of fraud and artifice to obtain the <a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" title="277" class="pagenum"></a>mere +reputation of it. Men do not affect a conduct that tends to their +discredit. Let us, then, get the better of Monsieur Necker in his own +way; let us do in reality what he does only in pretence; let us turn his +French tinsel into English gold. Is, then, the mere opinion and +appearance of frugality and good management of such use to France, and +is the substance to be so mischievous to England? Is the very +constitution of Nature so altered by a sea of twenty miles, that economy +should give power on the Continent, and that profusion should give it +here? For God's sake, let not this be the only fashion of France which +we refuse to copy!</p> + +<p>To the last kind of necessity, the desires of the people, I have but a +very few words to say. The ministers seem to contest this point, and +affect to doubt whether the people do really desire a plan of economy in +the civil government. Sir, this is too ridiculous. It is impossible that +they should not desire it. It is impossible that a prodigality which +draws its resources from their indigence should be pleasing to them. +Little factions of pensioners, and their dependants, may talk another +language. But the voice of Nature is against them, and it will be heard. +The people of England will not, they cannot, take it kindly, that +representatives should refuse to their constituents what an absolute +sovereign voluntarily offers to his subjects. The expression of the +petitions is, that, "<i>before any new burdens are laid upon this country, +effectual measures be taken by this House to inquire into and correct +the gross abuses in the expenditure of public money</i>."</p> + +<p>This has been treated by the noble lord in the blue ribbon as a wild, +factious language. It happens, <a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" title="278" class="pagenum"></a>however, that the people, in their +address to us, use, almost word for word, the same terms as the king of +France uses in addressing himself to his people; and it differs only as +it falls short of the French king's idea of what is due to his subjects. +"To convince," says he, "our faithful subjects of <i>the desire we +entertain not to recur to new impositions</i>, until we have first +exhausted all the resources which order and economy can possibly +supply," &c., &c.</p> + +<p>These desires of the people of England, which come far short of the +voluntary concessions of the king of France, are moderate indeed. They +only contend that we should interweave some economy with the taxes with +which we have chosen to begin the war. They request, not that you should +rely upon economy exclusively, but that you should give it rank and +precedence, in the order of the ways and means of this single session.</p> + +<p>But if it were possible that the desires of our constituents, desires +which are at once so natural and so very much tempered and subdued, +should have no weight with an House of Commons which has its eye +elsewhere, I would turn my eyes to the very quarter to which theirs are +directed. I would reason this matter with the House on the mere policy +of the question; and I would undertake to prove that an early +dereliction of abuse is the direct interest of government,—of +government taken abstractedly from its duties, and considered merely as +a system intending its own conservation.</p> + +<p>If there is any one eminent criterion which above all the rest +distinguishes a wise government from an administration weak and +improvident, it is this: "well to know the best time and manner of +yielding <a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" title="279" class="pagenum"></a>what it is impossible to keep." There have been, Sir, and +there are, many who choose to chicane with their situation rather than +be instructed by it. Those gentlemen argue against every desire of +reformation upon the principles of a criminal prosecution. It is enough +for them to justify their adherence to a pernicious system, that it is +not of their contrivance,—that it is an inheritance of absurdity, +derived to them from their ancestors,—that they can make out a long and +unbroken pedigree of mismanagers that have gone before them. They are +proud of the antiquity of their house; and they defend their errors as +if they were defending their inheritance, afraid of derogating from +their nobility, and carefully avoiding a sort of blot in their +scutcheon, which they think would degrade them forever.</p> + +<p>It was thus that the unfortunate Charles the First defended himself on +the practice of the Stuart who went before him, and of all the Tudors. +His partisans might have gone to the Plantagenets. They might have found +bad examples enough, both abroad and at home, that could have shown an +ancient and illustrious descent. But there is a time when men will not +suffer bad things because their ancestors have suffered worse. There is +a time when the hoary head of inveterate abuse will neither draw +reverence nor obtain protection. If the noble lord in the blue ribbon +pleads, "<i>Not guilty</i>," to the charges brought against the present +system of public economy, it is not possible to give a fair verdict by +which he will not stand acquitted. But pleading is not our present +business. His plea or his traverse may be allowed as an answer to a +charge, when a charge is made. But if he puts himself in the way to +obstruct reformation, then <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" title="280" class="pagenum"></a>the faults of his office instantly become +his own. Instead of a public officer in an abusive department, whose +province is an object to be regulated, he becomes a criminal who is to +be punished. I do most seriously put it to administration to consider +the wisdom of a timely reform. Early reformations are amicable +arrangements with a friend in power; late reformations are terms imposed +upon a conquered enemy: early reformations are made in cool blood; late +reformations are made under a state of inflammation. In that state of +things the people behold in government nothing that is respectable. They +see the abuse, and they will see nothing else. They fall into the temper +of a furious populace provoked at the disorder of a house of ill-fame; +they never attempt to correct or regulate; they go to work by the +shortest way: they abate the nuisance, they pull down the house.</p> + +<p>This is my opinion with regard to the true interest of government. But +as it is the interest of government that reformation should be early, it +is the interest of the people that it should be temperate. It is their +interest, because a temperate reform is permanent, and because it has a +principle of growth. Whenever we improve, it is right to leave room for +a further improvement. It is right to consider, to look about us, to +examine the effect of what we have done. Then we can proceed with +confidence, because we can proceed with intelligence. Whereas in hot +reformations, in what men more zealous than considerate call <i>making +clear work</i>, the whole is generally so crude, so harsh, so indigested, +mixed with so much imprudence and so much injustice, so contrary to the +whole course of human nature and human institutions, that the very +people who are most <a name="Page_281" id="Page_281" title="281" class="pagenum"></a>eager for it are among the first to grow disgusted +at what they have done. Then some part of the abdicated grievance is +recalled from its exile in order to become a corrective of the +correction. Then the abuse assumes all the credit and popularity of a +reform. The very idea of purity and disinterestedness in politics falls +into disrepute, and is considered as a vision of hot and inexperienced +men; and thus disorders become incurable, not by the virulence of their +own quality, but by the unapt and violent nature of the remedies. A +great part, therefore, of my idea of reform is meant to operate +gradually: some benefits will come at a nearer, some at a more remote +period. We must no more make haste to be rich by parsimony than by +intemperate acquisition.</p> + +<p>In my opinion, it is our duty, when we have the desires of the people +before us, to pursue them, not in the spirit of literal obedience, which +may militate with their very principle,—much less to treat them with a +peevish and contentious litigation, as if we were adverse parties in a +suit. It would, Sir, be most dishonorable for a faithful representative +of the Commons to take advantage of any inartificial expression of the +people's wishes, in order to frustrate their attainment of what they +have an undoubted right to expect. We are under infinite obligations to +our constituents, who have raised us to so distinguished a trust, and +have imparted such a degree of sanctity to common characters. We ought +to walk before them with purity, plainness, and integrity of +heart,—with filial love, and not with slavish fear, which is always a +low and tricking thing. For my own part, in what I have meditated upon +that subject, I cannot, indeed, take upon me to say I have the honor <i>to +follow</i> the sense of the <a name="Page_282" id="Page_282" title="282" class="pagenum"></a>people. The truth is, <i>I met it on the way</i>, +while I was pursuing their interest according to my own ideas. I am +happy beyond expression to find that my intentions have so far coincided +with theirs, that I have not had, cause to be in the least scrupulous to +sign their petition, conceiving it to express my own opinions, as nearly +as general terms can express the object of particular arrangements.</p> + +<p>I am therefore satisfied to act as a fair mediator between government +and the people, endeavoring to form a plan which should have both an +early and a temperate operation. I mean, that it should be substantial, +that it should be systematic, that it should rather strike at the first +cause of prodigality and corrupt influence than attempt to follow them +in all their effects.</p> + +<p>It was to fulfil the first of these objects (the proposal of something +substantial) that I found myself obliged, at the outset, to reject a +plan proposed by an honorable and attentive member of Parliament,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33" /><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor" +title="Thomas Gilbert, Esq., member for Lichfield.">[33]</a> +with very good intentions on his part, about a year or two ago. Sir, the +plan I speak of was the tax of twenty-five per cent moved upon places +and pensions during the continuance of the American war. Nothing, Sir, +could have met my ideas more than such a tax, if it was considered as a +practical satire on that war, and as a penalty upon those who led us +into it; but in any other view it appeared to me very liable to +objections. I considered the scheme as neither substantial, nor +permanent, nor systematical, nor likely to be a corrective of evil +influence. I have always thought employments a very proper subject of +regulation, but a very ill-chosen subject for a tax. An equal tax <a name="Page_283" id="Page_283" title="283" class="pagenum"></a>upon +property is reasonable; because the object is of the same quality +throughout. The species is the same; it differs only in its quantity. +But a tax upon salaries is totally of a different nature; there can be +no equality, and consequently no justice, in taxing them by the hundred +in the gross.</p> + +<p>We have, Sir, on our establishment several offices which perform real +service: we have also places that provide large rewards for no service +at all. We have stations which are made for the public decorum, made for +preserving the grace and majesty of a great people: we have likewise +expensive formalities, which tend rather to the disgrace than the +ornament of the state and the court. This, Sir, is the real condition of +our establishments. To fall with the same severity on objects so +perfectly dissimilar is the very reverse of a reformation,—I mean a +reformation framed, as all serious things ought to be, in number, +weight, and measure.—Suppose, for instance, that two men receive a +salary of 800<i>l.</i> a year each. In the office of one there is nothing at +all to be done; in the other, the occupier is oppressed by its duties. +Strike off twenty-five per cent from these two offices, you take from +one man 200<i>l.</i> which in justice he ought to have, and you give in +effect to the other 600<i>l.</i> which he ought not to receive. The public +robs the former, and the latter robs the public; and this mode of mutual +robbery is the only way in which the office and the public can make up +their accounts.</p> + +<p>But the balance, in settling the account of this double injustice, is +much against the state. The result is short. You purchase a saving of +two hundred pounds by a profusion of six. Besides, Sir, whilst you leave +a supply of unsecured money behind, <a name="Page_284" id="Page_284" title="284" class="pagenum"></a>wholly at the discretion of +ministers, they make up the tax to such places as they wish to favor, or +in such new places as they may choose to create. Thus the civil list +becomes oppressed with debt; and the public is obliged to repay, and to +repay with an heavy interest, what it has taken by an injudicious tax. +Such has been the effect of the taxes hitherto laid on pensions and +employments, and it is no encouragement to recur again to the same +expedient.</p> + +<p>In effect, such a scheme is not calculated to produce, but to prevent +reformation. It holds out a shadow of present gain to a greedy and +necessitous public, to divert their attention from those abuses which in +reality are the great causes of their wants. It is a composition to stay +inquiry; it is a fine paid by mismanagement for the renewal of its +lease; what is worse, it is a fine paid by industry and merit for an +indemnity to the idle and the worthless. But I shall say no more upon +this topic, because (whatever may be given out to the contrary) I know +that the noble lord in the blue ribbon perfectly agrees with me in these +sentiments.</p> + +<p>After all that I have said on this subject, I am so sensible that it is +our duty to try everything which may contribute to the relief of the +nation, that I do not attempt wholly to reprobate the idea even of a +tax. Whenever, Sir, the incumbrance of useless office (which lies no +less a dead weight upon the service of the state than upon its revenues) +shall be removed,—when the remaining offices shall be classed according +to the just proportion of their rewards and services, so as to admit the +application of an equal rule to their taxation,—when the discretionary +power over the civil list cash shall be so regulated that a minis<a name="Page_285" id="Page_285" title="285" class="pagenum"></a>ter +shall no longer have the means of repaying with a private what is taken +by a public hand,—if, after all these preliminary regulations, it +should be thought that a tax on places is an object worthy of the public +attention, I shall be very ready to lend my hand to a reduction of their +emoluments.</p> + +<p>Having thus, Sir, not so much absolutely rejected as postponed the plan +of a taxation of office, my next business was to find something which +might be really substantial and effectual. I am quite clear, that, if we +do not go to the very origin and first ruling cause of grievances, we do +nothing. What does it signify to turn abuses out of one door, if we are +to let them in at another? What does it signify to promote economy upon +a measure, and to suffer it to be subverted in the principle? Our +ministers are far from being wholly to blame for the present ill order +which prevails. Whilst institutions directly repugnant to good +management are suffered to remain, no effectual or lasting reform <i>can</i> +be introduced.</p> + +<p>I therefore thought it necessary, as soon as I conceived thoughts of +submitting to you some plan of reform, to take a comprehensive view of +the state of this country,—to make a sort of survey of its +jurisdictions, its estates, and its establishments. Something in every +one of them seemed to me to stand in the way of all economy in their +administration, and prevented every possibility of methodizing the +system. But being, as I ought to be, doubtful of myself, I was resolved +not to proceed in an <i>arbitrary</i> manner in any particular which tended +to change the settled state of things, or in any degree to affect the +fortune or situation, the interest or the importance, of any individual. +By an arbitrary proceeding I mean one <a name="Page_286" id="Page_286" title="286" class="pagenum"></a>conducted by the private +opinions, tastes, or feelings of the man who attempts to regulate. These +private measures are not standards of the exchequer, nor balances of the +sanctuary. General principles cannot be debauched or corrupted by +interest or caprice; and by those principles I was resolved to work.</p> + +<p>Sir, before I proceed further, I will lay these principles fairly before +you, that afterwards you may be in a condition to judge whether every +object of regulation, as I propose it, comes fairly under its rule. This +will exceedingly shorten all discussion between us, if we are perfectly +in earnest in establishing a system of good management. I therefore lay +down to myself seven fundamental rules: they might, indeed, be reduced +to two or three simple maxims; but they would be too general, and their +application to the several heads of the business before us would not be +so distinct and visible. I conceive, then,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>First</i>, That all jurisdictions which furnish more matter of + expense, more temptation to oppression, or more means and + instruments of corrupt influence, than advantage to justice or + political administration, ought to be abolished.</p> + +<p> <i>Secondly</i>, That all public estates which are more subservient to + the purposes of vexing, overawing, and influencing those who hold + under them, and to the expense of perception and management, than + of benefit to the revenue, ought, upon every principle both of + revenue and of freedom, to be disposed of.</p> + +<p> <i>Thirdly</i>, That all offices which bring more charge than + proportional advantage to the state, that all offices which may be + engrafted on others, uniting and simplifying their duties, ought, + in the first <a name="Page_287" id="Page_287" title="287" class="pagenum"></a>case, to be taken away, and, in the second, to be + consolidated.</p> + +<p> <i>Fourthly</i>, That all such offices ought to be abolished as obstruct + the prospect of the general superintendent of finance, which + destroy his superintendency, which disable him from foreseeing and + providing for charges as they may occur, from preventing expense in + its origin, checking it in its progress, or securing its + application to its proper purposes. A minister, under whom expenses + can be made without his knowledge, can never say what it is that he + can spend, or what it is that he can save.</p> + +<p> <i>Fifthly</i>, That it is proper to establish an invariable order in + all payments, which will prevent partiality, which will give + preference to services, not according to the importunity of the + demandant, but the rank and order of their utility or their + justice.</p> + +<p> <i>Sixthly</i>, That it is right to reduce every establishment and every + part of an establishment (as nearly as possible) to certainty, the + life of all order and good management.</p> + +<p> <i>Seventhly</i>, That all subordinate treasuries, as the nurseries of + mismanagement, and as naturally drawing to themselves as much money + as they can, keeping it as long as they can, and accounting for it + as late as they can, ought to be dissolved. They have a tendency to + perplex and distract the public accounts, and to excite a suspicion + of government even beyond the extent of their abuse.</p></div> + +<p>Under the authority and with the guidance of those principles I +proceed,—wishing that nothing in any <a name="Page_288" id="Page_288" title="288" class="pagenum"></a>establishment may be changed, +where I am not able to make a strong, direct, and solid application of +those principles, or of some one of them. An economical constitution is +a necessary basis for an economical administration.</p> + +<p>First, with regard to the sovereign jurisdictions, I must observe, Sir, +that whoever takes a view of this kingdom in a cursory manner will +imagine that he beholds a solid, compacted, uniform system of monarchy, +in which all inferior jurisdictions are but as rays diverging from one +centre. But on examining it more nearly, you find much eccentricity and +confusion. It is not a <i>monarchy</i> in strictness. But, as in the Saxon +times this country was an heptarchy, it is now a strange sort of +<i>pentarchy</i>. It is divided into five several distinct principalities, +besides the supreme. There is, indeed, this difference from the Saxon +times,—that, as in the itinerant exhibitions of the stage, for want of +a complete company, they are obliged to throw a variety of parts on +their chief performer, so our sovereign condescends himself to act not +only the principal, but all the subordinate parts in the play. He +condescends to dissipate the royal character, and to trifle with those +light, subordinate, lacquered sceptres in those hands that sustain the +ball representing the world, or which wield the trident that commands +the ocean. Cross a brook, and you lose the King of England; but you have +some comfort in coming again under his Majesty, though "shorn of his +beams," and no more than Prince of Wales. Go to the north, and you find +him dwindled to a Duke of Lancaster; turn to the west of that north, and +he pops upon you in the humble character of Earl of Chester. Travel a +few miles on, the Earl of Chester <a name="Page_289" id="Page_289" title="289" class="pagenum"></a>disappears, and the king surprises +you again as Count Palatine of Lancaster. If you travel beyond Mount +Edgecombe, you find him ones more in his incognito, and he is Duke of +Cornwall. So that, quite fatigued and satiated with this dull variety, +you are infinitely refreshed when you return to the sphere of his proper +splendor, and behold your amiable sovereign in his true, simple, +undisguised, native character of Majesty.</p> + +<p>In every one of these five principalities, duchies, palatinates, there +is a regular establishment of considerable expense and most domineering +influence. As his Majesty submits to appear in this state of +subordination to himself, his loyal peers and faithful commons attend +his royal transformations, and are not so nice as to refuse to nibble at +those crumbs of emoluments which console their petty metamorphoses. Thus +every one of those principalities has the apparatus of a kingdom for the +jurisdiction over a few private estates, and the formality and charge of +the Exchequer of Great Britain for collecting the rents of a country +squire. Cornwall is the best of them; but when you compare the charge +with the receipt, you will find that it furnishes no exception to the +general rule. The Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster do not yield, +as I have reason to believe, on an average of twenty years, four +thousand pounds a year clear to the crown. As to Wales, and the County +Palatine of Chester, I have my doubts whether their productive exchequer +yields any returns at all. Yet one may say, that this revenue is more +faithfully applied to its purposes than any of the rest; as it exists +for the sole purpose of multiplying offices and extending influence.<a name="Page_290" id="Page_290" title="290" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>An attempt was lately made to improve this branch of local influence, +and to transfer it to the fund of general corruption. I have on the seat +behind me the constitution of Mr. John Probert, a knight-errant dubbed +by the noble lord in the blue ribbon, and sent to search for revenues +and adventures upon the mountains of Wales. The commission is +remarkable, and the event not less so. The commission sets forth, that, +"upon a report of the <i>deputy-auditor</i>" (for there is a deputy-auditor) +"of the Principality of Wales, it appeared that his Majesty's land +revenues in the said principality <i>are greatly diminished</i>";—and "that +upon a <i>report</i> of the <i>surveyor-general</i> of his Majesty's land +revenues, upon a <i>memorial</i> of the auditor of his Majesty's revenues, +<i>within the said principality</i>, that his mines and forests have produced +very <i>little profit either to the public revenue or to +individuals</i>";—and therefore they appoint Mr. Probert, with a pension +of three hundred pounds a year from the said principality, to try +whether he can make anything more of that very <i>little</i> which is stated +to be so <i>greatly</i> diminished. "<i>A beggarly account of empty boxes</i>." +And yet, Sir, you will remark, that this diminution from littleness +(which serves only to prove the infinite divisibility of matter) was not +for want of the tender and officious care (as we see) of surveyors +general and surveyors particular, of auditors and deputy-auditors,—not +for want of memorials, and remonstrances, and reports, and commissions, +and constitutions, and inquisitions, and pensions.</p> + +<p>Probert, thus armed, and accoutred,—and paid,—proceeded on his +adventure; but he was no sooner arrived on the confines of Wales than +all Wales was in arms to meet him. That nation is brave and full <a name="Page_291" id="Page_291" title="291" class="pagenum"></a>of +spirit. Since the invasion of King Edward, and the massacre of the +bards, there never was such a tumult and alarm and uproar through the +region of Prestatyn. Snowdon shook to its base; Cader-Idris was loosened +from its foundations. The fury of litigious war blew her horn on the +mountains. The rocks poured down their goatherds, and the deep caverns +vomited out their miners. Everything above ground and everything under +ground was in arms.</p> + +<p>In short, Sir, to alight from my Welsh Pegasus, and to come to level +ground, the <i>Preux Chevalier</i> Probert went to look for revenue, like his +masters upon other occasions, and, like his masters, he found rebellion. +But we were grown cautious by experience. A civil war of paper might end +in a more serious war; for now remonstrance met remonstrance, and +memorial was opposed to memorial. The wise Britons thought it more +reasonable that the poor, wasted, decrepit revenue of the principality +should die a natural than a violent death. In truth, Sir, the attempt +was no less an affront upon the understanding of that respectable people +than it was an attack on their property. They chose rather that their +ancient, moss-grown castles should moulder into decay, under the silent +touches of time, and the slow formality of an oblivious and drowsy +exchequer, than that they should be battered down all at once by the +lively efforts of a pensioned engineer. As it is the fortune of the +noble lord to whom the auspices of this campaign belonged frequently to +provoke resistance, so it is his rule and nature to yield to that +resistance <i>in all cases whatsoever</i>. He was true to himself on this +occasion. He submitted with spirit to the spirited remonstrances of the +Welsh. Mr. Probert gave up his adventure, and <a name="Page_292" id="Page_292" title="292" class="pagenum"></a>keeps his pension; and so +ends "the famous history of the revenue adventures of the bold Baron +North and the good Knight Probert upon the mountains of Venodotia."</p> + +<p>In such a state is the exchequer of Wales at present, that, upon the +report of the Treasury itself, its <i>little</i> revenue is <i>greatly</i> +diminished; and we see, by the whole of this strange transaction, that +an attempt to improve it produces resistance, the resistance produces +submission, and the whole ends in pension.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34" /><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor" +title="Here Lord North shook his head, and told those who sat near him that Mr. Probert's +pension was to depend on his success. It may be so. Mr. Probert's pension was, however, +no essential part of the question; nor did Mr. B. care whether he still possessed it or not. +His point was, to show the ridicule of attempting an improvement of the Welsh revenue under +its present establishment.">[34]</a></p> + +<p>It is nearly the same with the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster. To do +nothing with them is extinction; to improve them is oppression. Indeed, +the whole of the estates which support these minor principalities is +made up, not of revenues, and rents, and profitable fines, but of +claims, of pretensions, of vexations, of litigations. They are +exchequers of unfrequent receipt and constant charge: a system of +finances not fit for an economist who would be rich, not fit for a +prince who would govern his subjects with equity and justice.</p> + +<p>It is not only between prince and subject that these mock jurisdictions +and mimic revenues produce great mischief. They excite among the people +a spirit of informing and delating, a spirit of supplanting and +undermining one another: so that many, in such circumstances, conceive +it advantageous to them rather to continue subject to vexation +themselves than to give up the means and chance of vexing oth<a name="Page_293" id="Page_293" title="293" class="pagenum"></a>ers. It is +exceedingly common for men to contract their love to their country into +an attachment to its petty subdivisions; and they sometimes even cling +to their provincial abuses, as if they were franchises and local +privileges. Accordingly, in places where there is much of this kind of +estate, persons will be always found who would rather trust to their +talents in recommending themselves to power for the renewal of their +interests, than to incumber their purses, though never so lightly, in +order to transmit independence to their posterity. It is a great +mistake, that the desire of securing property is universal among +mankind. Gaming is a principle inherent in human nature. It belongs to +us all. I would therefore break those tables; I would furnish no evil +occupation for that spirit. I would make every man look everywhere, +except to the intrigue of a court, for the improvement of his +circumstances or the security of his fortune. I have in my eye a very +strong case in the Duchy of Lancaster (which lately occupied Westminster +Hall and the House of Lords) as my voucher for many of these +reflections.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35" /><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor" +title="Case of Richard Lee, Esq., appellant, against George Venables Lord Vernon, respondent, in the year 1775.">[35]</a></p> + +<p>For what plausible reason are these principalities suffered to exist? +When a government is rendered complex, (which in itself is no desirable +thing,) it ought to be for some political end which cannot be answered +otherwise. Subdivisions in government are only admissible in favor of +the dignity of inferior princes and high nobility, or for the support of +an aristocratic confederacy under some head, or for the conservation of +the franchises of the people in some privileged province. For the two +former of these <a name="Page_294" id="Page_294" title="294" class="pagenum"></a>ends, such are the subdivisions in favor of the +electoral and other princes in the Empire; for the latter of these +purposes are the jurisdictions of the Imperial cities and the Hanse +towns. For the latter of these ends are also the countries of the States +(<i>Pays d'États</i>) and certain cities and orders in France. These are all +regulations with an object, and some of them with a very good object. +But how are the principles of any of these subdivisions applicable in +the case before us?</p> + +<p>Do they answer any purpose to the king? The Principality of Wales was +given by patent to Edward the Black Prince on the ground on which it has +since stood. Lord Coke sagaciously observes upon it, "That in the +charter of creating the Black Prince Edward Prince of Wales there is a +<i>great mystery</i>: for <i>less</i> than an estate of inheritance so <i>great</i> a +prince <i>could</i> not have, and an <i>absolute estate of inheritance</i> in so +<i>great</i> a principality as Wales (this principality being <i>so dear</i> to +him) he <i>should</i> not have; and therefore it was made <i>sibi et heredibus +suis regibus Angliæ</i>, that by his decease, or attaining to the crown, it +might be extinguished in the crown."</p> + +<p>For the sake of this foolish <i>mystery</i>, of what a great prince <i>could</i> +not have <i>less</i> and <i>should</i> not have <i>so much</i>, of a principality which +was too <i>dear</i> to be given and too <i>great</i> to be kept,—and for no other +cause that ever I could find,—this form and shadow of a principality, +without any substance, has been maintained. That you may judge in this +instance (and it serves for the rest) of the difference between a great +and a little economy, you will please to recollect, Sir, that Wales may +be about the tenth part of England in size and population, and certainly +not a hundredth <a name="Page_295" id="Page_295" title="295" class="pagenum"></a>part in opulence. Twelve judges perform the whole of +the business, both of the stationary and the itinerant justice of this +kingdom; but for Wales there are eight judges. There is in Wales an +exchequer, as well as in all the duchies, according to the very best and +most authentic absurdity of form. There are in all of them a hundred +more difficult trifles and laborious fooleries, which serve no other +purpose than to keep alive corrupt hope and servile dependence.</p> + +<p>These principalities are so far from contributing to the ease of the +king, to his wealth, or his dignity, that they render both his supreme +and his subordinate authority perfectly ridiculous. It was but the other +day, that that pert, factious fellow, the Duke of Lancaster, presumed to +fly in the face of his liege lord, our gracious sovereign, and, +<i>associating</i> with a parcel of lawyers as factious as himself, to the +destruction of <i>all law and order</i>, and <i>in committees leading directly +to rebellion</i>, presumed to go to law with the king. The object is +neither your business nor mine. Which of the parties got the better I +really forget. I think it was (as it ought to be) the king. The material +point is, that the suit cost about fifteen thousand pounds. But as the +Duke of Lancaster is but a sort of <i>Duke Humphrey</i>, and not worth a +groat, our sovereign was obliged to pay the costs of both. Indeed, this +art of converting a great monarch into a little prince, this royal +masquerading, is a very dangerous and expensive amusement, and one of +the king's <i>menus plaisirs</i>, which ought to be reformed. This duchy, +which is not worth four thousand pounds a year at best to <i>revenue</i>, is +worth forty or fifty thousand to <i>influence</i>.</p> + +<p>The Duchy of Lancaster and the County Palatine <a name="Page_296" id="Page_296" title="296" class="pagenum"></a>of Lancaster answered, I +admit, some purpose in their original creation. They tended to make a +subject imitate a prince. When Henry the Fourth from that stair ascended +the throne, high-minded as he was, he was not willing to kick away the +ladder. To prevent that principality from being extinguished in the +crown, he severed it by act of Parliament. He had a motive, such as it +was: he thought his title to the crown unsound, and his possession +insecure. He therefore managed a retreat in his duchy, which Lord Coke +calls (I do not know why) "<i>par multis regnis</i>." He flattered himself +that it was practicable to make a projecting point half way down, to +break his fall from the precipice of royalty; as if it were possible for +one who had lost a kingdom to keep anything else. However, it is evident +that he thought so. When Henry the Fifth united, by act of Parliament, +the estates of his mother to the duchy, he had the same predilection +with his father to the root of his family honors, and the same policy in +enlarging the sphere of a possible retreat from the slippery royalty of +the two great crowns he held. All this was changed by Edward the Fourth. +He had no such family partialities, and his policy was the reverse of +that of Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth. He accordingly again +united the Duchy of Lancaster to the crown. But when Henry the Seventh, +who chose to consider himself as of the House of Lancaster, came to the +throne, he brought with him the old pretensions and the old politics of +that house. A new act of Parliament, a second time, dissevered the Duchy +of Lancaster from the crown; and in that line tilings continued until +the subversion of the monarchy, when principalities and powers fell +along with <a name="Page_297" id="Page_297" title="297" class="pagenum"></a>the throne. The Duchy of Lancaster must have been +extinguished, if Cromwell, who began to form ideas of aggrandizing his +house and raising the several branches of it, had not caused the duchy +to be again separated from the commonwealth, by an act of the Parliament +of those times.</p> + +<p>What partiality, what objects of the politics of the House of Lancaster, +or of Cromwell, has his present Majesty, or his Majesty's family? What +power have they within any of these principalities, which they have not +within their kingdom? In what manner is the dignity of the nobility +concerned in these principalities? What rights have the subject there, +which they have not at least equally in every other part of the nation? +These distinctions exist for no good end to the king, to the nobility, +or to the people. They ought not to exist at all. If the crown (contrary +to its nature, but most conformably to the whole tenor of the advice +that has been lately given) should so far forget its dignity as to +contend that these jurisdictions and revenues are estates of private +property, I am rather for acting as if that groundless claim were of +some weight than for giving up that essential part of the reform. I +would value the clear income, and give a clear annuity to the crown, +taken on the medium produce for twenty years.</p> + +<p>If the crown has any favorite name or title, if the subject has any +matter of local accommodation within any of these jurisdictions, it is +meant to preserve them,—and to improve them, if any improvement can be +suggested. As to the crown reversions or titles upon the property of the +people there, it is proposed to convert them from a snare to their +independence into a relief from their burdens. I propose, there<a name="Page_298" id="Page_298" title="298" class="pagenum"></a>fore, to +unite all the five principalities to the crown, and to its ordinary +jurisdiction,—to abolish all those offices that produce an useless and +chargeable separation from the body of the people,—to compensate those +who do not hold their offices (if any such there are) at the pleasure of +the crown,—to extinguish vexatious titles by an act of short +limitation,—to sell those unprofitable estates which support useless +jurisdictions,—and to turn the tenant-right into a fee, on such +moderate terms as will be better for the state than its present right, +and which it is impossible for any rational tenant to refuse.</p> + +<p>As to the duchies, their judicial economy may be provided for without +charge. They have only to fall of course into the common county +administration. A commission more or less, made or omitted, settles the +matter fully. As to Wales, it has been proposed to add a judge to the +several courts of Westminster Hall; and it has been considered as an +improvement in itself. For my part, I cannot pretend to speak upon it +with clearness or with decision; but certainly this arrangement would be +more than sufficient for Wales. My original thought was, to suppress +five of the eight judges; and to leave the chief-justice of Chester, +with the two senior judges; and, to facilitate the business, to throw +the twelve counties into six districts, holding the sessions alternately +in the counties of which each district shall be composed. But on this I +shall be more clear, when I come to the particular bill.</p> + +<p>Sir, the House will now see, whether, in praying for judgment against +the minor principalities, I do not act in conformity to the laws that I +had laid to myself: of getting rid of every jurisdiction more +sub<a name="Page_299" id="Page_299" title="299" class="pagenum"></a>servient to oppression and expense than to any end of justice or +honest policy; of abolishing offices more expensive than useful; of +combining duties improperly separated; of changing revenues more +vexatious than productive into ready money; of suppressing offices which +stand in the way of economy; and of cutting off lurking subordinate +treasuries. Dispute the rules, controvert the application, or give your +hands to this salutary measure.</p> + +<p>Most of the same rules will be found applicable to my second +object,—<i>the landed estate of the crown</i>. A landed estate is certainly +the very worst which the crown can possess. All minute and dispersed +possessions, possessions that are often of indeterminate value, and +which require a continued personal attendance, are of a nature more +proper for private management than public administration. They are +fitter for the care of a frugal land-steward than of an office in the +state. Whatever they may possibly have been in other times or in other +countries, they are not of magnitude enough with us to occupy a public +department, nor to provide for a public object. They are already given +up to Parliament, and the gift is not of great value. Common prudence +dictates, even in the management of private affairs, that all dispersed +and chargeable estates should be sacrificed to the relief of estates +more compact and better circumstanced.</p> + +<p>If it be objected, that these lands at present would sell at a low +market, this is answered by showing that money is at a high price. The +one balances the other. Lands sell at the current rate; and nothing can +sell for more. But be the price what it may, a great object is always +answered, whenever any property is transferred from hands that are not +fit for that <a name="Page_300" id="Page_300" title="300" class="pagenum"></a>property to those that are. The buyer and seller must +mutually profit by such a bargain; and, what rarely happens in matters +of revenue, the relief of the subject will go hand in hand with the +profit of the Exchequer.</p> + +<p>As to the <i>forest lands</i>, in which the crown has (where they are not +granted or prescriptively held) the <i>dominion</i> of the <i>soil</i>, and the +<i>vert</i> and <i>venison</i>, that is to say, the timber and the game, and in +which the people have a variety of rights, in common of herbage, and +other commons, according to the usage of the several forests,—I propose +to have those rights of the crown valued as manorial rights are valued +on an inclosure, and a defined portion of land to be given for them, +which land is to be sold for the public benefit.</p> + +<p>As to the timber, I propose a survey of the whole. What is useless for +the naval purposes of the kingdom I would condemn and dispose of for the +security of what may be useful, and to inclose such other parts as may +be most fit to furnish a perpetual supply,—wholly extinguishing, for a +very obvious reason, all right of <i>venison</i> in those parts.</p> + +<p>The forest <i>rights</i> which extend over the lands and possessions of +others, being of no profit to the crown, and a grievance, as far as it +goes, to the subject,—these I propose to extinguish without charge to +the proprietors. The several commons are to be allotted and compensated +for, upon ideas which I shall hereafter explain. They are nearly the +same with the principles upon which you have acted in private +inclosures. I shall never quit precedents, where I find them applicable. +For those regulations and compensations, and for every other part of the +detail, you <a name="Page_301" id="Page_301" title="301" class="pagenum"></a>will be so indulgent as to give me credit for the present.</p> + +<p>The revenue to be obtained from the sale of the forest lands and rights +will not be so considerable, I believe, as many people have imagined; +and I conceive it would be unwise to screw it up to the utmost, or even +to suffer bidders to enhance, according to their eagerness, the purchase +of objects wherein the expense of that purchase may weaken the capital +to be employed in their cultivation. This, I am well aware, might give +room for partiality in the disposal. In my opinion it would be the +lesser evil of the two. But I really conceive that a rule of fair +preference might be established, which would take away all sort of +unjust and corrupt partiality. The principal revenue which I propose to +draw from these uncultivated wastes is to spring from the improvement +and population of the kingdom,—which never can happen without producing +an improvement more advantageous to the revenues of the crown than the +rents of the best landed estate which it can hold. I believe, Sir, it +will hardly be necessary for me to add, that in this sale I naturally +except all the houses, gardens, and parks belonging to the crown, and +such one forest as shall be chosen by his Majesty as best accommodated +to his pleasures.</p> + +<p>By means of this part of the reform will fall the expensive office of +<i>surveyor-general,</i> with all the influence that attends it. By this will +fall <i>two chief-justices in Eyre</i>, with all their train of dependants. +You need be under no apprehension, Sir, that your office is to be +touched in its emoluments. They are yours by law; and they are but a +moderate part of the compensation which is given to you for the ability +with which <a name="Page_302" id="Page_302" title="302" class="pagenum"></a>you execute an office of quite another sort of importance: +it is far from overpaying your diligence, or more than sufficient for +sustaining the high rank you stand in as the first gentleman of England. +As to the duties of your chief-justiceship, they are very different from +those for which you have received the office. Your dignity is too high +for a jurisdiction over wild beasts, and your learning and talents too +valuable to be wasted as chief-justice of a desert. I cannot reconcile +it to myself, that you, Sir, should be stuck up as a useless piece of +antiquity.</p> + +<p>I have now disposed of the unprofitable landed estates of the crown, and +thrown them into the mass of private property; by which they will come, +through the course of circulation, and through the political secretions +of the state, into our better understood and better ordered revenues.</p> + +<p>I come next to the great supreme body of the civil government itself. I +approach it with that awe and reverence with which a young physician +approaches to the cure of the disorders of his parent. Disorders, Sir, +and infirmities, there are,—such disorders, that all attempts towards +method, prudence, and frugality will be perfectly vain, whilst a system +of confusion remains, which is not only alien, but adverse to all +economy; a system which is not only prodigal in its very essence, but +causes everything else which belongs to it to be prodigally conducted.</p> + +<p>It is impossible, Sir, for any person to be an economist, where no order +in payments is established; it is impossible for a man to be an +economist, who is not able to take a comparative view of his means and +of his expenses for the year which lies before him; it is impossible for +a man to be an economist, under <a name="Page_303" id="Page_303" title="303" class="pagenum"></a>whom various officers in their several +departments may spend—even just what they please,—and often with an +emulation of expense, as contributing to the importance, if not profit +of their several departments. Thus much is certain: that neither the +present nor any other First Lord of the Treasury has been ever able to +take a survey, or to make even a tolerable guess, of the expenses of +government for any one year, so as to enable him with the least degree +of certainty, or even probability, to bring his affairs within compass. +Whatever scheme may be formed upon them must be made on a calculation of +chances. As things are circumstanced, the First Lord of the Treasury +cannot make an estimate. I am sure I serve the king, and I am sure I +assist administration, by putting economy at least in their power. We +must <i>class services</i>; we must (as far as their nature admits) +<i>appropriate</i> funds; or everything, however reformed, will fall again +into the old confusion.</p> + +<p>Coming upon this ground of the civil list, the first thing in dignity +and charge that attracts our notice is the <i>royal household</i>. This +establishment, in my opinion, is exceedingly abusive in its +constitution. It is formed upon manners and customs that have long since +expired. In the first place, it is formed, in many respects, upon +<i>feudal principles</i>. In the feudal times, it was not uncommon, even +among subjects, for the lowest offices to be held by considerable +persons,—persons as unfit by their incapacity as improper from their +rank to occupy such employments. They were held by patent, sometimes for +life, and sometimes by inheritance. If my memory does not deceive me, a +person of no slight consideration held the office of patent hereditary +cook to an Earl of Warwick:<a name="Page_304" id="Page_304" title="304" class="pagenum"></a> the Earl of Warwick's soups, I fear, were +not the better for the dignity of his kitchen. I think it was an Earl of +Gloucester who officiated as steward of the household to the Archbishops +of Canterbury. Instances of the same kind may in some degree be found in +the Northumberland house-book, and other family records. There was some +reason in ancient necessities for these ancient customs. Protection was +wanted; and the domestic tie, though not the highest, was the closest.</p> + +<p>The king's household has not only several strong traces of this +<i>feudality</i>, but it is formed also upon the principles of a <i>body +corporate</i>: it has its own magistrates, courts, and by-laws. This might +be necessary in the ancient times, in order to have a government within +itself, capable of regulating the vast and often unruly multitude which +composed and attended it. This was the origin of the ancient court +called the <i>Green Cloth</i>,—composed of the marshal, treasurer, and other +great officers of the household, with certain clerks. The rich subjects +of the kingdom, who had formerly the same establishments, (only on a +reduced scale,) have since altered their economy, and turned the course +of their expense from the maintenance of vast establishments within +their walls to the employment of a great variety of independent trades +abroad. Their influence is lessened; but a mode of accommodation and a +style of splendor suited to the manners of the times has been increased. +Royalty itself has insensibly followed, and the royal household has been +carried away by the resistless tide of manners, but with this very +material difference: private men have got rid of the establishments +along with the reasons of them; whereas the royal household has lost all +<a name="Page_305" id="Page_305" title="305" class="pagenum"></a>that was stately and venerable in the antique manners, without +retrenching anything of the cumbrous charge of a Gothic establishment. +It is shrunk into the polished littleness of modern elegance and +personal accommodation; it has evaporated from the gross concrete into +an essence and rectified spirit of expense, where you have tuns of +ancient pomp in a vial of modern luxury.</p> + +<p>But when the reason of old establishments is gone, it is absurd to +preserve nothing but the burden of them. This is superstitiously to +embalm a carcass not worth an ounce of the gums that are used to +preserve it. It is to burn precious oils in the tomb; it is to offer +meat and drink to the dead: not so much an honor to the deceased as a +disgrace to the survivors. Our palaces are vast inhospitable halls. +There the bleak winds, there "Boreas, and Eurus, and Caurus, and +Argestes loud," howling through the vacant lobbies, and clattering the +doors of deserted guardrooms, appall the imagination, and conjure up the +grim spectres of departed tyrants,—the Saxon, the Norman, and the +Dane,—the stern Edwards and fierce Henrys,—who stalk from desolation +to desolation, through the dreary vacuity and melancholy succession of +chill and comfortless chambers. When this tumult subsides, a dead and +still more frightful silence would reign in this desert, if every now +and then the tacking of hammers did not announce that those constant +attendants upon all courts in all ages, jobs, were still alive,—for +whose sake alone it is that any trace of ancient grandeur is suffered to +remain. These palaces are a true emblem of some governments: the +inhabitants are decayed, but the governors and magistrates still +flourish. They put me in <a name="Page_306" id="Page_306" title="306" class="pagenum"></a>mind of Old Sarum, where the representatives, +more in number than the constituents, only serve to inform us that this +was once a place of trade, and sounding with "the busy hum of men," +though now you can only trace the streets by the color of the corn, and +its sole manufacture is in members of Parliament.</p> + +<p>These old establishments were formed also on a third principle, still +more adverse to the living economy of the age. They were formed, Sir, on +the principle of <i>purveyance</i> and <i>receipt in kind</i>. In former days, +when the household was vast, and the supply scanty and precarious, the +royal purveyors, sallying forth from under the Gothic portcullis to +purchase provision with power and prerogative instead of money, brought +home the plunder of an hundred markets, and all that could be seized +from a flying and hiding country, and deposited their spoil in an +hundred caverns, with each its keeper. There, every commodity, received +in its rawest condition, went through all the process which fitted it +for use. This inconvenient receipt produced an economy suited only to +itself. It multiplied offices beyond all measure,—buttery, pantry, and +all that rabble of places, which, though profitable to the holders, and +expensive to the state, are almost too mean to mention.</p> + +<p>All this might be, and I believe was, necessary at first; for it is +remarkable, that <i>purveyance</i>, after its regulation had been the subject +of a long line of statutes, (not fewer, I think, than twenty-six,) was +wholly taken away by the 12th of Charles the Second; yet in the next +year of the same reign it was found necessary to revive it by a special +act of Parliament, for the sake of the king's journeys. This, Sir, is +curious, and what would hardly he expected in so reduced a <a name="Page_307" id="Page_307" title="307" class="pagenum"></a>court as +that of Charles the Second and in so improved a country as England might +then be thought. But so it was. In our time, one well-filled and +well-covered stage-coach requires more accommodation than a royal +progress, and every district, at an hour's warning, can supply an army.</p> + +<p>I do not say, Sir, that all these establishments, whose principle is +gone, have been systematically kept up for influence solely: neglect had +its share. But this I am sure of: that a consideration of influence has +hindered any one from attempting to pull them down. For the purposes of +influence, and for those purposes only, are retained half at least of +the household establishments. No revenue, no, not a royal revenue, can +exist under the accumulated charge of ancient establishment, modern +luxury, and Parliamentary political corruption.</p> + +<p>If, therefore, we aim at regulating this household, the question will +be, whether we ought to economize by <i>detail</i> or by <i>principle</i>. The +example we have had of the success of an attempt to economize by detail, +and under establishments adverse to the attempt, may tend to decide this +question.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of his Majesty's reign, Lord Talbot came to the +administration of a great department in the household. I believe no man +ever entered into his Majesty's service, or into the service of any +prince, with a more clear integrity, or with more zeal and affection for +the interest of his master, and, I must add, with abilities for a still +higher service. Economy was then announced as a maxim of the reign. This +noble lord, therefore, made several attempts towards a reform. In the +year 1777, when the king's civil list debts came last to be paid, he +explained very <a name="Page_308" id="Page_308" title="308" class="pagenum"></a>fully the success of his undertaking. He told the House +of Lords that he had attempted to reduce the charges of the king's +tables and his kitchen. The thing, Sir, was not below him. He knew that +there is nothing interesting in the concerns of men whom we love and +honor, that is beneath our attention. "Love," says one of our old poets, +"esteems no office mean,"—and with still more spirit, "Entire affection +scorneth nicer hands." Frugality, Sir, is founded on the principle, that +all riches have limits. A royal household, grown enormous, even in the +meanest departments, may weaken and perhaps destroy all energy in the +highest offices of the state. The gorging a royal kitchen may stint and +famish the negotiations of a kingdom. Therefore the object was worthy of +his, was worthy of any man's attention.</p> + +<p>In consequence of this noble lord's resolution, (as he told the other +House,) he reduced several tables, and put the persons entitled to them +upon board wages, much to their own satisfaction. But, unluckily, +subsequent duties requiring constant attendance, it was not possible to +prevent their being fed where they were employed: and thus this first +step towards economy doubled the expense.</p> + +<p>There was another disaster far more doleful than this. I shall state it, +as the cause of that misfortune lies at the bottom of almost all our +prodigality. Lord Talbot attempted to reform the kitchen; but such, as +he well observed, is the consequence of having duty done by one person +whilst another enjoys the emoluments, that he found himself frustrated +in all his designs. On that rock his whole adventure split, his whole +scheme of economy was dashed to pieces. His department became more +expensive than <a name="Page_309" id="Page_309" title="309" class="pagenum"></a>ever; the civil list debt accumulated. Why? It was truly +from a cause which, though perfectly adequate to the effect, one would +not have instantly guessed. It was because <i>the turnspit in the king's +kitchen was a member of Parliament</i>!<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36" /><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor" +title="Vide Lord Talbot's speech in Almon's Parliamentary Register. Vol VII. p. 79, of the Proceedings of the Lords.">[36]</a> The king's domestic servants +were all undone, his tradesmen remained unpaid and became +bankrupt,—<i>because the turnspit of the king's kitchen was a member of +Parliament</i>. His Majesty's slumbers were interrupted, his pillow was +stuffed with thorns, and his peace of mind entirely broken,—<i>because +the king's turnspit was a member of Parliament</i>. The judges were unpaid, +the justice of the kingdom bent and gave way, the foreign ministers +remained inactive and unprovided, the system of Europe was dissolved, +the chain of our alliances was broken, all the wheels of government at +home and abroad were stopped,—<i>because the king's turnspit was a member +of Parliament</i>.</p> + +<p>Such, Sir, was the situation of affairs, and such the cause of that +situation, when his Majesty came a second time to Parliament to desire +the payment of those debts which the employment of its members in +various offices, visible and invisible, had occasioned. I believe that a +like fate will attend every attempt at economy by detail, under similar, +circumstances, and in every department. A complex, operose office of +account and control is, in itself, and even if members of Parliament had +nothing to do with it, the most prodigal of all things. The most +audacious robberies or the most subtle frauds would never venture upon +such a waste as an over-careful detailed guard against them will +infallibly produce. In our estab<a name="Page_310" id="Page_310" title="310" class="pagenum"></a>lishments, we frequently see an office +of account of an hundred pounds a year expense, and another office of an +equal expense to control that office, and the whole upon a matter that +is not worth twenty shillings.</p> + +<p>To avoid, therefore, this minute care, which produces the consequences +of the most extensive neglect, and to oblige members of Parliament to +attend to public cares, and not to the servile offices of domestic +management, I propose, Sir, to <i>economize by principle</i>: that is, I +propose to put affairs into that train which experience points out as +the most effectual, from the nature of things, and from the constitution +of the human mind. In all dealings, where it is possible, the principles +of radical economy prescribe three things: first, undertaking by the +great; secondly, engaging with persons of skill in the subject-matter; +thirdly, engaging with those who shall have an immediate and direct +interest in the proper execution of the business.</p> + +<p>To avoid frittering and crumbling down the attention by a blind, +unsystematic observance of every trifle, it has ever been found the best +way to do all things which are great in the total amount and minute in +the component parts by a <i>general contrast</i>. The principles of trade +have so pervaded every species of dealing, from the highest to the +lowest objects, all transactions are got so much into system, that we +may, at a moment's warning, and to a farthing value, be informed at what +rate any service may be supplied. No dealing is exempt from the +possibility of fraud. But by a contract on a matter certain you have +this advantage: you are sure to know the utmost <i>extent</i> of the fraud to +which you <a name="Page_311" id="Page_311" title="311" class="pagenum"></a>are subject. By a contract with a person in <i>his own trade</i> +you are sure you shall not suffer by <i>want of skill.</i> By a <i>short</i> +contract you are sure of making it the <i>interest</i> of the contractor to +exert that skill for the satisfaction of his employers.</p> + +<p>I mean to derogate nothing from the diligence or integrity of the +present, or of any former board of Green Cloth. But what skill can +members of Parliament obtain in that low kind of province? What pleasure +can they have in the execution of that kind of duty? And if they should +neglect it, how does it affect their interest, when we know that it is +their vote in Parliament, and not their diligence in cookery or +catering, that recommends them to their office, or keeps them in it?</p> + +<p>I therefore propose that the king's tables (to whatever number of +tables, or covers to each, he shall think proper to command) should be +classed by the steward of the household, and should be contracted for, +according to their rank, by the head or cover; that the estimate and +circumstance of the contract should be carried to the Treasury to be +approved; and that its faithful and satisfactory performance should be +reported there previous to any payment; that there, and there only, +should the payment be made. I propose that men should be contracted with +only in their proper trade; and that no member of Parliament should be +capable of such contract. By this plan, almost all the infinite offices +under the lord steward may be spared,—to the extreme simplification, +and to the far better execution, of every one of his functions. The king +of Prussia is so served. He is a great and eminent (though, indeed, a +very rare) instance of the possibility of uniting, in a mind <a name="Page_312" id="Page_312" title="312" class="pagenum"></a>of vigor +and compass, an attention to minute objects with the largest views and +the most complicated plans. His tables are served by contract, and by +the head. Let me say, that no prince can be ashamed to imitate the king +of Prussia, and particularly to learn in his school, when the problem +is, "The best manner of reconciling the state of a court with the +support of war." Other courts, I understand, have followed his with +effect, and to their satisfaction.</p> + +<p>The same clew of principle leads us through the labyrinth of the other +departments. What, Sir, is there in the office of <i>the great wardrobe</i> +(which has the care of the king's furniture) that may not be executed by +the lord chamberlain himself? He has an honorable appointment; he has +time sufficient to attend to the duty; and he has the vice-chamberlain +to assist him. Why should not he deal also by contract for all things +belonging to this office, and carry his estimates first, and his report +of the execution in its proper time, for payment, directly to the Board +of Treasury itself? By a simple operation, (containing in it a treble +control,) the expenses of a department which for naked walls, or walls +hung with cobwebs, has in a few years cost the crown 150,000<i>l.</i>, may +at length hope for regulation. But, Sir, the office and its business are +at variance. As it stands, it serves, not to furnish the palace with its +hangings, but the Parliament with its dependent members.</p> + +<p>To what end, Sir, does the office of <i>removing wardrobe</i> serve at all? +Why should a <i>jewel office</i> exist for the sole purpose of taxing the +king's gifts of plate? Its object falls naturally within the +chamberlain's province, and ought to be under his care and inspection +without any fee. Why should an office of the<a name="Page_313" id="Page_313" title="313" class="pagenum"></a> <i>robes</i> exist, when that +of <i>groom, of the stole</i> is a sinecure, and that this is a proper object +of his department?</p> + +<p>All these incumbrances, which are themselves nuisances, produce other +incumbrances and other nuisances. For the payment of these useless +establishments there are no less than <i>three useless treasurers</i>: two to +hold a purse, and one to play with a stick. The treasurer of the +household is a mere name. The cofferer and the treasurer of the chamber +receive and pay great sums, which it is not at all necessary <i>they</i> +should either receive or pay. All the proper officers, servants, and +tradesmen may be enrolled in their several departments, and paid in +proper classes and times with great simplicity and order, at the +Exchequer, and by direction from the Treasury.</p> + +<p>The <i>Board of Works</i>, which in the seven years preceding 1777 has cost +towards 400,000<i>l.</i>,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37" /><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor" +title="More exactly, 378,616 l. 10 s. 1¾ d.">[37]</a> and (if I recollect rightly) has not cost less +in proportion from the beginning of the reign, is under the very same +description of all the other ill-contrived establishments, and calls for +the very same reform. We are to seek for the visible signs of all this +expense. For all this expense, we do not see a building of the size and +importance of a pigeon-house. Buckingham House was reprised by a bargain +with the public for one hundred thousand pounds; and the small house at +Windsor has been, if I mistake not, undertaken since that account was +brought before us. The good works of that Board of Works are as +carefully concealed as other good works ought to be: they are perfectly +invisible. But though it is the <a name="Page_314" id="Page_314" title="314" class="pagenum"></a>perfection of charity to be concealed, +it is, Sir, the property and glory of magnificence to appear and stand +forward to the eye.</p> + +<p>That board, which ought to be a concern of builders and such like, and +of none else, is turned into a junto of members of Parliament. That +office, too, has a treasury and a paymaster of its own; and lest the +arduous affairs of that important exchequer should be too fatiguing, +that paymaster has a deputy to partake his profits and relieve his +cares. I do not believe, that, either now or in former times, the chief +managers of that board have made any profit of its abuse. It is, +however, no good reason that an abusive establishment should subsist, +because it is of as little private as of public advantage. But this +establishment has the grand radical fault, the original sin, that +pervades and perverts all our establishments: the apparatus is not +fitted to the object, nor the workmen to the work. Expenses are incurred +on the private opinion of an inferior establishment, without consulting +the principal, who can alone determine the proportion which it ought to +bear to the other establishments of the state, in the order of their +relative importance.</p> + +<p>I propose, therefore, along with the rest, to pull down this whole +ill-contrived scaffolding, which obstructs, rather than forwards, our +public works; to take away its treasury; to put the whole into the hands +of a real builder, who shall not be a member of Parliament; and to +oblige him, by a previous estimate and final payment, to appear twice at +the Treasury before the public can be loaded. The king's gardens are to +come under a similar regulation.</p> + +<p>The <i>Mint</i>, though not a department of the house<a name="Page_315" id="Page_315" title="315" class="pagenum"></a>hold, has the same +vices. It is a great expense to the nation, chiefly for the sake of +members of Parliament. It has its officers of parade and dignity. It has +its treasury, too. It is a sort of corporate body, and formerly was a +body of great importance,—as much so, on the then scale of things, and +the then order of business, as the Bank is at this day. It was the great +centre of money transactions and remittances for our own and for other +nations, until King Charles the First, among other arbitrary projects +dictated by despotic necessity, made it withhold the money that lay +there for remittance. That blow (and happily, too) the Mint never +recovered. Now it is no bank, no remittance-shop. The Mint, Sir, is a +<i>manufacture</i>, and it is nothing else; and it ought to be undertaken +upon the principles of a manufacture,—that is, for the best and +cheapest execution, by a contract upon proper securities and under +proper regulations.</p> + +<p>The <i>artillery</i> is a far greater object; it is a military concern; but +having an affinity and kindred in its defects with the establishments I +am now speaking of, I think it best to speak of it along with them. It +is, I conceive, an establishment not well suited to its martial, though +exceedingly well calculated for its Parliamentary purposes. Here there +is a treasury, as in all the other inferior departments of government. +Here the military is subordinate to the civil, and the naval confounded +with the land service. The object, indeed, is much the same in both. +But, when the detail is examined, it will be found that they had better +be separated. For a reform of this office, I propose to restore things +to what (all considerations taken together) is their natural order: to +restore <a name="Page_316" id="Page_316" title="316" class="pagenum"></a>them to their just proportion, and to their just distribution. +I propose, in this military concern, to render the civil subordinate to +the military; and this will annihilate the greatest part of the expense, +and all the influence belonging to the office. I propose to send the +military branch to the army, and the naval to the Admiralty; and I +intend to perfect and accomplish the whole detail (where it becomes too +minute and complicated for legislature, and requires exact, official, +military, and mechanical knowledge) by a commission of competent +officers in both departments. I propose to execute by contract what by +contract can be executed, and to bring, as much as possible, all +estimates to be previously approved and finally to be paid by the +Treasury.</p> + +<p>Thus, by following the course of Nature, and not the purposes of +politics, or the accumulated patchwork of occasional accommodation, this +vast, expensive department may be methodized, its service proportioned +to its necessities, and its payments subjected to the inspection of the +superior minister of finance, who is to judge of it on the result of the +total collective exigencies of the state. This last is a reigning +principle through my whole plan; and it is a principle which I hope may +hereafter be applied to other plans.</p> + +<p>By these regulations taken together, besides the three subordinate +treasuries in the lesser principalities, five other subordinate +treasuries are suppressed. There is taken away the whole <i>establishment +of detail</i> in the household: the <i>treasurer</i>; the <i>comptroller</i> (for a +comptroller is hardly necessary where there is no treasurer); the +<i>cofferer of the household</i>; the <i>treasurer of the chamber</i>; the <i>master +of the household</i>; the whole <i>board of green cloth</i>;—and a vast number +of <a name="Page_317" id="Page_317" title="317" class="pagenum"></a>subordinate offices in the department of the <i>steward of the +household</i>,—the whole establishment of the <i>great wardrobe</i>,—the +<i>removing wardrobe</i>,—the <i>jewel office</i>,—the <i>robes</i>,—the <i>Board of +Works</i>,—almost the whole charge of the <i>civil branch</i> of the <i>Board of +Ordnance</i>, are taken away. All these arrangements together will be found +to relieve the nation from a vast weight of influence, without +distressing, but rather by forwarding every public service. When +something of this kind is done, then the public may begin to breathe. +Under other governments, a question of expense is only a question of +economy, and it is nothing more: with us, in every question of expense +there is always a mixture of constitutional considerations.</p> + +<p>It is, Sir, because I wish to keep this business of subordinate +treasuries as much as I can together, that I brought the <i>ordnance +office</i> before you, though it is properly a military department. For the +same reason I will now trouble you with my thoughts and propositions +upon two of the greatest <i>under-treasuries</i>: I mean the office of +<i>paymaster of the land forces</i>, or <i>treasurer of the army</i>, and that of +the <i>treasurer of the navy</i>. The former of these has long been a great +object of public suspicion and uneasiness. Envy, too, has had its share +in the obloquy which is cast upon this office. But I am sure that it has +no share at all in the reflections I shall make upon it, or in the +reformations that I shall propose. I do not grudge to the honorable +gentleman who at present holds the office any of the effects of his +talents, his merit, or his fortune. He is respectable in all these +particulars. I follow the constitution of the office without persecuting +its holder. It is necessary in all matters of public complaint, where +men frequently feel right and argue <a name="Page_318" id="Page_318" title="318" class="pagenum"></a>wrong, to separate prejudice from +reason, and to be very sure, in attempting the redress of a grievance, +that we hit upon its real seat and its true nature. Where there is an +abuse in office, the first thing that occurs in heat is to censure the +officer. Our natural disposition leads all our inquiries rather to +persons than to things. But this prejudice is to be corrected by maturer +thinking.</p> + +<p>Sir, the profits of the <i>pay office</i> (as an office) are not too great, +in my opinion, for its duties, and for the rank of the person who has +generally held it. He has been generally a person of the highest +rank,—that is to say, a person of eminence and consideration in this +House. The great and the invidious profits of the pay office are from +the <i>bank</i> that is held in it. According to the present course of the +office, and according to the present mode of accounting there, this bank +must necessarily exist somewhere. Money is a productive thing; and when +the usual time of its demand can be tolerably calculated, it may with +prudence be safely laid out to the profit of the holder. It is on this +calculation that the business of banking proceeds. But no profit can be +derived from the use of money which does not make it the interest of the +holder to delay his account. The process of the Exchequer colludes with +this interest. Is this collusion from its want of rigor and strictness +and great regularity of form? The reverse is true. They have in the +Exchequer brought rigor and formalism to their ultimate perfection. The +process against accountants is so rigorous, and in a manner so unjust, +that correctives must from time to time be applied to it. These +correctives being discretionary, upon the case, and generally remitted +by the<a name="Page_319" id="Page_319" title="319" class="pagenum"></a> Barons to the Lords of the Treasury, as the test judges of the +reasons for respite, hearings are had, delays are produced, and thus the +extreme of rigor in office (as usual in all human affairs) leads to the +extreme of laxity. What with the interested delay of the officer, the +ill-conceived exactness of the court, the applications for dispensations +from that exactness, the revival of rigorous process after the +expiration of the time, and the new rigors producing new applications +and new enlargements of time, such delays happen in the public accounts +that they can scarcely ever be closed.</p> + +<p>Besides, Sir, they have a rule in the Exchequer, which, I believe, they +have founded upon a very ancient statute, that of the 51st of Henry the +Third, by which it is provided, that, "when a sheriff or bailiff hath +begun his account, none other shall be received to account, until he +that was first appointed hath clearly accounted, and that the sum has +been received."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38" /><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor" +title="Et quaunt viscount ou baillif eit comence de acompter, nul autre ne seit +resceu de aconter tanque le primer qe soit assis eit peraccompte, et qe la somme +soit resceu.—Stat. 5. Ann Dom. 1266.">[38]</a> Whether this clause of that statute be the ground of +that absurd practice I am not quite able to ascertain. But it has very +generally prevailed, though I am told that of late they have began to +relax from it. In consequence of forms adverse to substantial account, +we have a long succession of paymasters and their representatives who +have never been admitted to account, although perfectly ready to do so.</p> + +<p>As the extent of our wars has scattered the accountants under the +paymaster into every part of the globe, the grand and sure paymaster, +Death, in all his <a name="Page_320" id="Page_320" title="320" class="pagenum"></a>shapes, calls these accountants to another reckoning. +Death, indeed, domineers over everything but the forms of the Exchequer. +Over these he has no power. They are impassive and immortal. The audit +of the Exchequer, more severe than the audit to which the accountants +are gone, demands proofs which in the nature of things are difficult, +sometimes impossible, to be had. In this respect, too, rigor, as usual, +defeats itself. Then the Exchequer never gives a particular receipt, or +clears a man of his account as far as it goes. A final acquittance (or a +<i>quietus</i>, as they term it) is scarcely ever to be obtained. Terrors and +ghosts of unlaid accountants haunt the houses of their children from +generation to generation. Families, in the course of succession, fall +into minorities; the inheritance comes into the hands of females; and +very perplexed affairs are often delivered over into the hands of +negligent guardians and faithless stewards. So that the demand remains, +when the advantage of the money is gone,—if ever any advantage at all +has been made of it. This is a cause of infinite distress to families, +and becomes a source of influence to an extent that can scarcely be +imagined, but by those who have taken some pains to trace it. The +mildness of government, in the employment of useless and dangerous +powers, furnishes no reason for their continuance.</p> + +<p>As things stand, can you in justice (except perhaps in that over-perfect +kind of justice which has obtained by its merits the title of the +opposite vice<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39" /><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor" +title="Summum jus summa injuria.">[39]</a>) insist that any man should, by the course of his +office, keep a <i>bank</i> from whence he is to derive no advantage? that a +man should be subject to demands below and <a name="Page_321" id="Page_321" title="321" class="pagenum"></a>be in a manner refused an +acquittance above, that he should transmit an original sin and +inheritance of vexation to his posterity, without a power of +compensating himself in some way or other for so perilous a situation? +We know, that, if the paymaster should deny himself the advantages of +his bank, the public, as things stand, is not the richer for it by a +single shilling. This I thought it necessary to say as to the offensive +magnitude of the profits of this office, that we may proceed in +reformation on the principles of reason, and not on the feelings of +envy.</p> + +<p>The treasurer of the navy is, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, in the same +circumstances. Indeed, all accountants are. Instead of the present mode, +which is troublesome to the officer and unprofitable to the public, I +propose to substitute something more effectual than rigor, which is the +worst exactor in the world. I mean to remove the very temptations to +delay; to facilitate the account; and to transfer this bank, now of +private emolument, to the public. The crown will suffer no wrong at +least from the pay offices; and its terrors will no longer reign over +the families of those who hold or have held them. I propose that these +offices should be no longer <i>banks</i> or <i>treasuries</i>, but mere <i>offices +of administration</i>. I propose, first, that the present paymaster and the +treasurer of the navy should carry into the Exchequer the whole body of +the vouchers for what they have paid over to deputy-paymasters, to +regimental agents, or to any of those to whom they have and ought to +have paid money. I propose that those vouchers shall be admitted as +actual payments in their accounts, and that the persons to whom the +money has been paid shall then stand charged in the Exchequer in their +place. After this process, they <a name="Page_322" id="Page_322" title="322" class="pagenum"></a>shall be debited or charged for nothing +but the money-balance that remains in their hands.</p> + +<p>I am conscious, Sir, that, if this balance (which they could not expect +to be so suddenly demanded by any usual process of the Exchequer) should +now be exacted all at once, not only their ruin, but a ruin of others to +an extent which I do not like to think of, but which I can well +conceive, and which you may well conceive, might be the consequence. I +told you, Sir, when I promised before the holidays to bring in this +plan, that I never would suffer any man or description of men to suffer +from errors that naturally have grown out of the abusive constitution of +those offices which I propose to regulate. If I cannot reform with +equity, I will not reform at all.</p> + +<p>For the regulation of past accounts, I shall therefore propose such a +mode, as men, temperate and prudent, make use of in the management of +their private affairs, when their accounts are various, perplexed, and +of long standing. I would therefore, after their example, divide the +public debts into three sorts,—good, bad, and doubtful. In looking over +the public accounts, I should never dream of the blind mode of the +Exchequer, which regards things in the abstract, and knows no difference +in the quality of its debts or the circumstances of its debtors. By this +means it fatigues itself, it vexes others, it often crushes the poor, it +lets escape the rich, or, in a fit of mercy or carelessness, declines +all means of recovering its just demands. Content with the eternity of +its claims, it enjoys its Epicurean divinity with Epicurean languor. But +it is proper that all sorts of accounts should be closed some time or +other,—by payment, by composition, or by oblivion. <a name="Page_323" id="Page_323" title="323" class="pagenum"></a><i>Expedit reipublicæ +ut sit finis litium</i>. Constantly taking along with me, that an extreme +rigor is sure to arm everything against it, and at length to relax into +a supine neglect, I propose, Sir, that even the best, soundest, and the +most recent dents should be put into instalments, for the mutual benefit +of the accountant and the public.</p> + +<p>In proportion, however, as I am tender of the past, I would be provident +of the future. All money that was formerly imprested to the two great +<i>pay offices</i> I would have imprested in future to the <i>Bank of England</i>. +These offices should in future receive no more than cash sufficient for +small payments. Their other payments ought to be made by drafts on the +Bank, expressing the service. A check account from both offices, of +drafts and receipts, should be annually made up in the +Exchequer,—charging the Bank in account with the cash balance, but not +demanding the payment until there is an order from the Treasury, in +consequence of a vote of Parliament.</p> + +<p>As I did not, Sir, deny to the paymaster the natural profits of the bank +that was in his hands, so neither would I to the Bank of England. A +share of that profit might be derived to the public in various ways. My +favorite mode is this: that, in compensation for the use of this money, +the bank may take upon themselves, first, <i>the charge of the Mint</i>, to +which they are already, by their charter, obliged to bring in a great +deal of bullion annually to be coined. In the next place, I mean that +they should take upon themselves the charge of <i>remittances to our +troops abroad</i>. This is a species of dealing from which, by the same +charter, they are not debarred. One and a quarter per cent will be saved +instantly thereby to the public on <a name="Page_324" id="Page_324" title="324" class="pagenum"></a>very large sums of money. This will +be at once a matter of economy and a considerable reduction of +influence, by taking away a private contract of an expensive nature. If +the Bank, which is a great corporation, and of course receives the least +profits from the money in their custody, should of itself refuse or be +persuaded to refuse this offer upon those terms, I can speak with some +confidence that one at least, if not both parts of the condition would +be received, and gratefully received, by several bankers of eminence. +There is no banker who will not be at least as good security as any +paymaster of the forces, or any treasurer of the navy, that have ever +been bankers to the public: as rich at least as my Lord Chatham, or my +Lord Holland, or either of the honorable gentlemen who now hold the +offices, were at the time that they entered into them; or as ever the +whole establishment of the Mint has been at any period.</p> + +<p>These, Sir, are the outlines of the plan I mean to follow, in +suppressing these two large subordinate treasuries. I now come to +another subordinate treasury,—I mean that of the <i>paymaster of the +pensions</i>; for which purpose I reënter the limits of the civil +establishment: I departed from those limits in pursuit of a principle; +and, following the same game in its doubles, I am brought into those +limits again. That treasury and that office I mean to take away, and to +transfer the payment of every name, mode, and denomination of pensions +to the Exchequer. The present course of diversifying the same object can +answer no good purpose, whatever its use may be to purposes of another +kind. There are also other lists of pensions; and I mean that they +should all be here<a name="Page_325" id="Page_325" title="325" class="pagenum"></a>after paid at one and the same place. The whole of +the new consolidated list I mean to reduce to 60,000<i>l.</i> a year, which +sum I intend it shall never exceed. I think that sum will fully answer +as a reward to all real merit and a provision for all real public +charity that is ever like to be placed upon the list. If any merit of an +extraordinary nature should emerge before that reduction is completed, I +have left it open for an address of either House of Parliament to +provide for the case. To all other demands it must be answered, with +regret, but with firmness, "The public is poor."</p> + +<p>I do not propose, as I told you before Christmas, to take away any +pension. I know that the public seem to call for a reduction of such of +them as shall appear unmerited. As a censorial act, and punishment of an +abuse, it might answer some purpose. But this can make no part of <i>my</i> +plan. I mean to proceed by bill; and I cannot stop for such an inquiry. +I know some gentlemen may blame me. It is with great submission to +better judgments that I recommend it to consideration, that a critical +retrospective examination of the pension list, upon the principle of +merit, can never serve for my basis. It cannot answer, according to my +plan, any effectual purpose of economy, or of future, permanent +reformation. The process in any way will be entangled and difficult, and +it will be infinitely slow: there is a danger, that, if we turn our line +of march, now directed towards the grand object, into this more +laborious than useful detail of operations, we shall never arrive at our +end.</p> + +<p>The king, Sir, has been by the Constitution appointed sole judge of the +merit for which a pension is to <a name="Page_326" id="Page_326" title="326" class="pagenum"></a>be given. We have a right, undoubtedly, +to canvass this, as we have to canvass every act of government. But +there is a material difference between an office to be reformed and a +pension taken away for demerit. In the former case, no charge is implied +against the holder; in the latter, his character is slurred, as well as +his lawful emolument affected. The former process is against the thing; +the second, against the person. The pensioner certainly, if he pleases, +has a right to stand on his own defence, to plead his possession, and to +bottom his title in the competency of the crown to give him what he +holds. Possessed and on the defensive as he is, he will not be obliged +to prove his special merit, in order to justify the act of legal +discretion, now turned into his property, according to his tenure. The +very act, he will contend, is a legal presumption, and an implication of +his merit. If this be so, from the natural force of all legal +presumption, he would put us to the difficult proof that he has no merit +at all. But other questions would arise in the course of such an +inquiry,—that is, questions of the merit when weighed against the +proportion of the reward; then the difficulty will be much greater.</p> + +<p>The difficulty will not, Sir, I am afraid, be much less, if we pass to +the person really guilty in the question of an unmerited pension: the +minister himself. I admit, that, when called to account for the +execution of a trust, he might fairly be obliged to prove the +affirmative, and to state the merit for which the pension is given, +though on the pensioner himself such a process would be hard. If in this +examination we proceed methodically, and so as to avoid all suspicion of +partiality and prejudice, we must take <a name="Page_327" id="Page_327" title="327" class="pagenum"></a>the pensions in order of time, +or merely alphabetically. The very first pension to which we come, in +either of these ways, may appear the most grossly unmerited of any. But +the minister may very possibly show that he knows nothing of the putting +on this pension; that it was prior in time to his administration; that +the minister who laid it on is dead: and then we are thrown back upon +the pensioner himself, and plunged into all our former difficulties. +Abuses, and gross ones, I doubt not, would appear, and to the correction +of which I would readily give my hand: but when I consider that pensions +have not generally been affected by the revolutions of ministry; as I +know not where such inquiries would stop; and as an absence of merit is +a negative and loose thing;—one might be led to derange the order of +families founded on the probable continuance of their kind of income; I +might hurt children; I might injure creditors;—I really think it the +more prudent course not to follow the letter of the petitions. If we fix +this mode of inquiry as a basis, we shall, I fear, end as Parliament has +often ended under similar circumstances. There will be great delay, much +confusion, much inequality in our proceedings. But what presses me most +of all is this: that, though we should strike off all the unmerited +pensions, while the power of the crown remains unlimited, the very same +undeserving persons might afterwards return to the very same list; or, +if they did not, other persons, meriting as little as they do, might be +put upon it to an undefinable amount. This, I think, is the pinch of the +grievance.</p> + +<p>For these reasons, Sir, I am obliged to waive this mode of proceeding as +any part of my plan. In a <a name="Page_328" id="Page_328" title="328" class="pagenum"></a>plan of reformation, it would be one of my +maxims, that, when I know of an establishment which may be subservient +to useful purposes, and which at the same time, from its discretionary +nature, is liable to a very great perversion from those purposes, <i>I +would limit the quantity of the power that might be so abused</i>. For I am +sure that in all such cases the rewards of merit will have very narrow +bounds, and that partial or corrupt favor will be infinite. This +principle is not arbitrary, but the limitation of the specific quantity +must be so in some measure. I therefore state 60,000<i>l.</i>, leaving it +open to the House to enlarge or contract the sum as they shall see, on +examination, that the discretion I use is scanty or liberal. The whole +amount of the pensions of all denominations which have been laid before +us amount, for a period of seven years, to considerably more than +100,000<i>l.</i> a year. To what the other lists amount I know not. That +will be seen hereafter. But from those that do appear, a saving will +accrue to the public, at one time or other, of 40,000<i>l.</i> a year; and +we had better, in my opinion, to let it fall in naturally than to tear +it crude and unripe from the stalk.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40" /><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor" +title="It was supposed by the Lord Advocate, in a subsequent debate, that Mr. Burke, +because he objected to an inquiry into the pension list for the purpose of economy +and relief of the public, would have it withheld from the judgment of Parliament +for all purposes whatsoever. This learned gentleman certainly misunderstood him. +His plan shows that he wished the whole list to be easily accessible; and he knows +that the public eye is of itself a great guard against abuse.">[40]</a></p> + +<p>There is a great deal of uneasiness among the people upon an article +which I must class under the head of pensions: I mean the <i>great patent +offices in the Exchequer</i>. They are in reality and substance no other +than pensions, and in no other light shall I consider <a name="Page_329" id="Page_329" title="329" class="pagenum"></a>them. They are +sinecures; they are always executed by deputy; the duty of the principal +is as nothing. They differ, however, from the pensions on the list in +some particulars. They are held for life. I think, with the public, that +the profits of those places are grown enormous; the magnitude of those +profits, and the nature of them, both call for reformation. The nature +of their profits, which grow out of the public distress, is itself +invidious and grievous. But I fear that reform cannot be immediate. I +find myself under a restriction. These places, and others of the same +kind, which are held for life, have been considered as property. They +have been given as a provision for children; they have been the subject +of family settlements; they have been the security of creditors. What +the law respects shall be sacred to me. If the barriers of law should be +broken down, upon ideas of convenience, even of public convenience, we +shall have no longer anything certain among us. If the discretion of +power is once let loose upon property, we can be at no loss to determine +whose power and what discretion it is that will prevail at last. It +would be wise to attend upon the order of things, and not to attempt to +outrun the slow, but smooth and even course of Nature. There are +occasions, I admit, of public necessity, so vast, so clear, so evident, +that they supersede all laws. Law, being only made for the benefit of +the community, cannot in any one of its parts resist a demand which may +comprehend the total of the public interest. To be sure, no law can set +itself up against the cause and reason of all law; but such a case very +rarely happens, and this most certainly is not such a case. The mere +time of the reform is by no means worth the sacrifice of a <a name="Page_330" id="Page_330" title="330" class="pagenum"></a>principle of +law. Individuals pass like shadows; but the commonwealth is fixed and +stable. The difference, therefore, of to-day and to-morrow, which to +private people is immense, to the state is nothing. At any rate, it is +better, if possible, to reconcile our economy with our laws than to set +them at variance,—a quarrel which in the end must be destructive to +both.</p> + +<p>My idea, therefore, is, to reduce those offices to fixed salaries, as +the present lives and reversions shall successively fall. I mean, that +the office of the great auditor (the auditor of the receipt) shall be +reduced to 3000<i>l.</i> a year; and the auditors of the imprest, and the +rest of the principal officers, to fixed appointments of 1,500<i>l.</i> a +year each. It will not be difficult to calculate the value of this fall +of lives to the public, when we shall have obtained a just account of +the present income of those places; and we shall obtain that account +with great facility, if the present possessors are not alarmed with any +apprehension of danger to their freehold office.</p> + +<p>I know, too, that it will be demanded of me, how it comes, that, since I +admit these offices to be no better than pensions, I chose, after the +principle of law had been satisfied, to retain them at all. To this, +Sir, I answer, that, conceiving it to be a fundamental part of the +Constitution of this country, and of the reason of state in every +country, that there must be means of rewarding public service, those +means will be incomplete, and indeed wholly insufficient for that +purpose, if there should be no further reward for that service than the +daily wages it receives during the pleasure of the crown.</p> + +<p>Whoever seriously considers the excellent argu<a name="Page_331" id="Page_331" title="331" class="pagenum"></a>ment of Lord Somers, in +the Bankers' Case, will see he bottoms himself upon the very same maxim +which I do; and one of his principal grounds of doctrine for the +alienability of the domain in England,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41" /><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor" +title="Before the statute of Queen Anne, which limited the alienation of land.">[41]</a> contrary to the maxim of the +law in France, he lays in the constitutional policy of furnishing a +permanent reward to public service, of making that reward the origin of +families, and the foundation of wealth as well as of honors. It is, +indeed, the only genuine, unadulterated origin of nobility. It is a +great principle in government, a principle at the very foundation of the +whole structure. The other judges who held the same doctrine went beyond +Lord Somers with regard to the remedy which they thought was given by +law against the crown upon the grant of pensions. Indeed, no man knows, +when he cuts off the incitements to a virtuous ambition, and the just +rewards of public service, what infinite mischief he may do his country +through all generations. Such saving to the public may prove the worst +mode of robbing it. The crown, which has in its hands the trust of the +daily pay for national service, ought to have in its hands also the +means for the repose of public labor and the fixed settlement of +acknowledged merit. There is a time when the weather-beaten, vessels of +the state ought to come into harbor. They must at length have a retreat +from the malice of rivals, from the perfidy of political friends, and +the inconstancy of the people. Many of the persons who in all times have +filled the great offices of state have been younger brothers, who had +originally little, if any fortune. These offices do not furnish the +means <a name="Page_332" id="Page_332" title="332" class="pagenum"></a>of amassing wealth. There ought to be some power in the crown of +granting pensions out of the reach of its own caprices. An entail of +dependence is a bad reward of merit.</p> + +<p>I would therefore leave to the crown the possibility of conferring some +favors, which, whilst they are received as a reward, do not operate as +corruption. When men receive obligations from the crown, through the +pious hands of fathers, or of connections as venerable as the paternal, +the dependences which arise from thence are the obligations of +gratitude, and not the fetters of servility. Such ties originate in +virtue, and they promote it. They continue men in those habitudes of +friendship, those political connections, and those political principles, +in which they began life. They are antidotes against a corrupt levity, +instead of causes of it. What an unseemly spectacle would it afford, +what a disgrace would it be to the commonwealth that suffered such +things, to see the hopeful son of a meritorious minister begging his +bread at the door of that Treasury from whence his father dispensed the +economy of an empire, and promoted the happiness and glory of his +country! Why should he be obliged to prostrate his honor and to submit +his principles at the levee of some proud favorite, shouldered and +thrust aside by every impudent pretender on the very spot where a few +days before he saw himself adored,—obliged to cringe to the author of +the calamities of his house, and to kiss the hands that are red with his +father's blood?—No, Sir, these things are unfit,—they are intolerable.</p> + +<p>Sir, I shall be asked, why I do not choose to destroy those offices +which are pensions, and appoint pensions under the direct title in their +stead. I allow <a name="Page_333" id="Page_333" title="333" class="pagenum"></a>that in some cases it leads to abuse, to have things +appointed for one purpose and applied to another. I have no great +objection to such a change; but I do not think it quite prudent for me +to propose it. If I should take away the present establishment, the +burden of proof rests upon me, that so many pensions, and no more, and +to such an amount each, and no more, are necessary for the public +service. This is what I can never prove; for it is a thing incapable of +definition. I do not like to take away an object that I think answers my +purpose, in hopes of getting it back again in a better shape. People +will bear an old establishment, when its excess is corrected, who will +revolt at a new one. I do not think these office-pensions to be more in +number than sufficient: but on that point the House will exercise its +discretion. As to abuse, I am convinced that very few trusts in the +ordinary course of administration have admitted less abuse than this. +Efficient ministers have been their own paymasters, it is true; but +their very partiality has operated as a kind of justice, and still it +was service that was paid. When we look over this Exchequer list, we +find it filled with the descendants of the Walpoles, of the Pelhams, of +the Townshends,—names to whom this country owes its liberties, and to +whom his Majesty owes his crown. It was in one of these lines that the +immense and envied employment he now holds came to a certain duke, +<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42" /><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor" title="Duke of Newcastle, whose dining-room is under the House of Commons.">[42]</a> +who is now probably sitting quietly at a very good dinner directly under +us, and acting <i>high life below stairs</i>, whilst we, his masters, are +filling our mouths with unsubstantial sounds, and talking of hungry +economy <a name="Page_334" id="Page_334" title="334" class="pagenum"></a>over his head. But he is the elder branch of an ancient and +decayed house, joined to and repaired by the reward of services done by +another. I respect the original title, and the first purchase of merited +wealth and honor through all its descents, through all its transfers, +and all its assignments. May such fountains never be dried up! May they +ever flow with their original purity, and refresh and fructify the +commonwealth for ages!</p> + +<p>Sir, I think myself bound to give you my reasons as clearly and as fully +for stopping in the course of reformation as for proceeding in it. My +limits are the rules of law, the rules of policy, and the service of the +state. This is the reason why I am not able to intermeddle with another +article, which seems to be a specific object in several of the +petitions: I mean the reduction of exorbitant emoluments to efficient +offices. If I knew of any real efficient office which did possess +exorbitant emoluments, I should be extremely desirous of reducing them. +Others may know of them: I do not. I am not possessed of an exact common +measure between real service and its reward. I am very sure that states +do sometimes receive services which is hardly in their power to reward +according to their worth. If I were to give my judgment with regard to +this country, I do not think the great efficient offices of the state to +be overpaid. The service of the public is a thing which cannot be put to +auction and struck down to those who will agree to execute it the +cheapest. When the proportion between reward and service is our object, +we must always consider of what nature the service is, and what sort of +men they are that must perform it. What is just payment for one kind <a name="Page_335" id="Page_335" title="335" class="pagenum"></a>of +labor, and full encouragement for one kind of talents, is fraud and +discouragement to others. Many of the great offices have much duty to +do, and much expense of representation to maintain. A Secretary of +State, for instance, must not appear sordid in the eyes of the ministers +of other nations; neither ought our ministers abroad to appear +contemptible in the courts where they reside. In all offices of duty, +there is almost necessarily a great neglect of all domestic affairs. A +person in high office can rarely take a view of his family-house. If he +sees that the state takes no detriment, the state must see that his +affairs should take as little.</p> + +<p>I will even go so far as to affirm, that, if men were willing to serve +in such situations without salary, they ought not to be permitted to do +it. Ordinary service must be secured by the motives to ordinary +integrity. I do not hesitate to say that that state which lays its +foundation in rare and heroic virtues will be sure to have its +superstructure in the basest profligacy and corruption. An honorable and +fair profit is the best security against avarice and rapacity; as in all +things else, a lawful and regulated enjoyment is the best security +against debauchery and excess. For as wealth is power, so all power will +infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other; and when men +are left no way of ascertaining their profits but by their means of +obtaining them, those means will be increased to infinity. This is true +in all the parts of administration, as well as in the whole. If any +individual were to decline his appointments, it might give an unfair +advantage to ostentatious ambition over unpretending service; it might +breed invidious comparisons; it might tend to destroy whatever little +<a name="Page_336" id="Page_336" title="336" class="pagenum"></a>unity and agreement may be found among ministers. And, after all, when +an ambitious man had run down his competitors by a fallacious show of +disinterestedness, and fixed himself in power by that means, what +security is there that he would not change his course, and claim as an +indemnity ten times more than he has given up?</p> + +<p>This rule, like every other, may admit its exceptions. When a great man +has some one great object in view to be achieved in a given time, it may +be absolutely necessary for him to walk out of all the common roads, +and, if his fortune permits it, to hold himself out as a splendid +example. I am told that something of this kind is now doing in a country +near us. But this is for a short race, the training for a heat or two, +and not the proper preparation for the regular stages of a methodical +journey. I am speaking of establishments, and not of men.</p> + +<p>It may be expected, Sir, that, when I am giving my reasons why I limit +myself in the reduction of employments, or of their profits, I should +say something of those which seem of eminent inutility in the state: I +mean the number of officers who, by their places, are attendant on the +person of the king. Considering the commonwealth merely as such, and +considering those officers only as relative to the direct purposes of +the state, I admit that they are of no use at all. But there are many +things in the constitution of establishments, which appear of little +value on the first view, which in a secondary and oblique manner produce +very material advantages. It was on full consideration that I determined +not to lessen any of the offices of honor about the crown, in their +number or their emoluments. These emoluments, except in one or <a name="Page_337" id="Page_337" title="337" class="pagenum"></a>two +cases, do not much more than answer the charge of attendance. Men of +condition naturally love to be about a court; and women of condition +love it much more. But there is in all regular attendance so much of +constraint, that, if it wore a mere charge, without any compensation, +you would soon have the court deserted by all the nobility of the +kingdom.</p> + +<p>Sir, the most serious mischiefs would follow from such a desertion. +Kings are naturally lovers of low company. They are so elevated above +all the rest of mankind that they must look upon all their subjects as +on a level. They are rather apt to hate than to love their nobility, on +account of the occasional resistance to their will which will be made by +their virtue, their petulance, or their pride. It must, indeed, be +admitted that many of the nobility are as perfectly willing to act the +part of flatterers, tale-bearers, parasites, pimps, and buffoons, as any +of the lowest and vilest of mankind can possibly be. But they are not +properly qualified for this object of their ambition. The want of a +regular education, and early habits, and some lurking remains of their +dignity, will never permit them to become a match for an Italian eunuch, +a mountebank, a fiddler, a player, or any regular practitioner of that +tribe. The Roman emperors, almost from the beginning, threw themselves +into such hands; and the mischief increased every day till the decline +and final ruin of the empire. It is therefore of very great importance +(provided the thing is not overdone) to contrive such an establishment +as must, almost whether a prince will or not, bring into daily and +hourly offices about his person a great number of his first nobility; +and it is rather an useful prejudice that gives them a pride in such a +servitude. Though they <a name="Page_338" id="Page_338" title="338" class="pagenum"></a>are not much the better for a court, a court +will be much the better for them. I have therefore not attempted to +reform any of the offices of honor about the king's person.</p> + +<p>There are, indeed, two offices in his stables which are sinecures: by +the change of manners, and indeed by the nature of the thing, they must +be so: I mean the several keepers of buck-hounds, stag-hounds, +foxhounds, and harriers. They answer no purpose of utility or of +splendor. These I propose to abolish. It is not proper that great +noblemen should be keepers of dogs, though they were the king's dogs.</p> + +<p>In every part of the scheme, I have endeavored that no primary, and that +even no secondary, service of the state should suffer by its frugality. +I mean to touch no offices but such as I am perfectly sure are either of +no use at all, or not of any use in the least assignable proportion to +the burden with which they load the revenues of the kingdom, and to the +influence with which they oppress the freedom of Parliamentary +deliberation; for which reason there are but two offices, which are +properly state offices, that I have a desire to reform.</p> + +<p>The first of them is the new office of <i>Third Secretary of State</i>, which +is commonly called <i>Secretary of State for the Colonies</i>.</p> + +<p><i>We</i> know that all the correspondence of the colonies had been, until +within a few years, carried on by the Southern Secretary of State, and +that this department has not been shunned upon account of the weight of +its duties, but, on the contrary, much sought on account of its +patronage. Indeed, he must be poorly acquainted with the history of +office who does not know how very lightly the American functions have +<a name="Page_339" id="Page_339" title="339" class="pagenum"></a>always leaned on the shoulders of the ministerial <i>Atlas</i> who has +upheld that side of the sphere. Undoubtedly, great temper and judgment +was requisite in the management of the colony politics; but the official +detail was a trifle. Since the new appointment, a train of unfortunate +accidents has brought before us almost the whole correspondence of this +favorite secretary's office since the first day of its establishment. I +will say nothing of its auspicious foundation, of the quality of its +correspondence, or of the effects that have ensued from it. I speak +merely of its <i>quantity</i>, which we know would have been little or no +addition to the trouble of whatever office had its hands the fullest. +But what has been the real condition of the old office of Secretary of +State? Have their velvet bags and their red boxes been so full that +nothing more could possibly be crammed into them?</p> + +<p>A correspondence of a curious nature has been lately published.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43" /><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor" +title="Letters between Dr. Addington and Sir James Wright.">[43]</a> In +that correspondence, Sir, we find the opinion of a noble person who is +thought to be the grand manufacturer of administrations, and therefore +the best judge of the quality of his work. He was of opinion that there +was but one man of diligence and industry in the whole administration: +it was the late Earl of Suffolk. The noble lord lamented very justly, +that this statesman, of so much mental vigor, was almost wholly disabled +from the exertion of it by his bodily infirmities. Lord Suffolk, dead to +the state long before he was dead to Nature, at last paid his tribute to +the common treasury to which we must all be taxed. But so little want +was found even of his intentional industry, that the office, vacant in +reality to its duties long before, continued vacant <a name="Page_340" id="Page_340" title="340" class="pagenum"></a>even in nomination +and appointment for a year after his death. The whole of the laborious +and arduous correspondence of this empire rested solely upon the +activity and energy of Lord Weymouth.</p> + +<p>It is therefore demonstrable, since one diligent man was fully equal to +the duties of the two offices, that two diligent men will be equal to +the duty of three. The business of the new office, which I shall propose +to you to suppress, is by no means too much to be returned to either of +the secretaries which remain. If this dust in the balance should be +thought too heavy, it may be divided between them both,—North America +(whether free or reduced) to the Northern Secretary, the West Indies to +the Southern. It is not necessary that I should say more upon the +inutility of this office. It is burning daylight. But before I have +done, I shall just remark that the history of this office is too recent +to suffer us to forget that it was made for the mere convenience of the +arrangements of political intrigue, and not for the service of the +state,—that it was made in order to give a color to an exorbitant +increase of the civil list, and in the same act to bring a new accession +to the loaded compost-heap of corrupt influence.</p> + +<p>There is, Sir, another office which was not long since closely connected +with this of the American Secretary, but has been lately separated from +it for the very same purpose for which it had been conjoined: I mean the +sole purpose of all the separations and all the conjunctions that have +been lately made,—a job. I speak, Sir, of the <i>Board of Trade and +Plantations</i>. This board is a sort of temperate bed of influence, a sort +of gently ripening hothouse, where eight members of Parliament receive +salaries of a thousand a <a name="Page_341" id="Page_341" title="341" class="pagenum"></a>year for a certain given time, in order to +mature, at a proper season, a claim to two thousand, granted for doing +less, and on the credit of having toiled so long in that inferior, +laborious department.</p> + +<p>I have known that board, off and on, for a great number of years. Both +of its pretended objects have been much the objects of my study, if I +have a right to call any pursuits of mine by so respectable a name. I +can assure the House, (and I hope they will not think that I risk my +little credit lightly,) that, without meaning to convey the least +reflection upon any one of its members, past or present, it is a board +which, if not mischievous, is of no use at all.</p> + +<p>You will be convinced, Sir, that I am not mistaken, if you reflect how +generally it is true, that commerce, the principal object of that +office, flourishes most when it is left to itself. Interest, the great +guide of commerce, is not a blind one. It is very well able to find its +own way; and its necessities are its best laws. But if it were possible, +in the nature of things, that the young should direct the old, and the +inexperienced instruct the knowing,—if a board in the state was the +best tutor for the counting-house,—if the desk ought to read lectures +to the anvil, and the pen to usurp the place of the shuttle,—yet in any +matter of regulation we know that board must act with as little +authority as skill. The prerogative of the crown is utterly inadequate +to the object; because all regulations are, in their nature, restrictive +of some liberty. In the reign, indeed, of Charles the First, the +Council, or Committees of Council, were never a moment unoccupied with +affairs of trade. But even where they had no ill intention, (which was +sometimes the case,) trade and manufacture suffered infinitely from +their injudicious <a name="Page_342" id="Page_342" title="342" class="pagenum"></a>tampering. But since that period, whenever regulation +is wanting, (for I do not deny that sometimes it may be wanting,) +Parliament constantly sits; and Parliament alone is competent to such +regulation. We want no instruction from boards of trade, or from any +other board; and God forbid we should give the least attention to their +reports! Parliamentary inquiry is the only mode of obtaining +Parliamentary information. There is more real knowledge to be obtained +by attending the detail of business in the committees above stairs than +ever did come, or ever will come, from any board in this kingdom, or +from all of them together. An assiduous member of Parliament will not be +the worse instructed there for not being paid a thousand a year for +learning his lesson. And now that I speak of the committees above +stairs, I must say, that, having till lately attended them a good deal, +I have observed that no description of members give so little +attendance, either to communicate or to obtain instruction upon matters +of commerce, as the honorable members of the grave Board of Trade. I +really do not recollect that I have ever seen one of them in that sort +of business. Possibly some members may have better memories, and may +call to mind some job that may have accidentally brought one or other of +them, at one time or other, to attend a matter of commerce.</p> + +<p>This board, Sir, has had both its original formation and its +regeneration in a job. In a job it was conceived, and in a job its +mother brought it forth. It made one among those showy and specious +impositions which one of the experiment-making administrations of +Charles the Second held out to delude the people, and to be substituted +in the place of the real <a name="Page_343" id="Page_343" title="343" class="pagenum"></a>service which they might expect from a +Parliament annually sitting. It was intended, also, to corrupt that +body, whenever it should be permitted to sit. It was projected in the +year 1668, and it continued in a tottering and rickety childhood for +about three or four years: for it died in the year 1673, a babe of as +little hopes as ever swelled the bills of mortality in the article of +convulsed or overlaid children who have hardly stepped over the +threshold of life.</p> + +<p>It was buried with little ceremony, and never more thought of until the +reign of King William, when, in the strange vicissitude of neglect and +vigor, of good and ill success that attended his wars, in the year 1695, +the trade was distressed beyond all example of former sufferings by the +piracies of the French cruisers. This suffering incensed, and, as it +should seem, very justly incensed, the House of Commons. In this +ferment, they struck, not only at the administration, but at the very +constitution of the executive government. They attempted to form in +Parliament a board for the protection of trade, which, as they planned +it, was to draw to itself a great part, if not the whole, of the +functions and powers both of the Admiralty and of the Treasury; and +thus, by a Parliamentary delegation of office and officers, they +threatened absolutely to separate these departments from the whole +system of the executive government, and of course to vest the most +leading and essential of its attributes in this board. As the executive +government was in a manner convicted of a dereliction of its functions, +it was with infinite difficulty that this blow was warded off in that +session. There was a threat to renew the same attempt in the next. To +prevent the effect of this manoeuvre, the court opposed another +manoeuvre <a name="Page_344" id="Page_344" title="344" class="pagenum"></a>to it, and, in the year 1696, called into life this Board of +Trade, which had slept since 1673.</p> + +<p>This, in a few words, is the history of the regeneration of the Board of +Trade. It has perfectly answered its purposes. It was intended to quiet +the minds of the people, and to compose the ferment that was then +strongly working in Parliament. The courtiers were too happy to be able +to substitute a board which they knew would be useless in the place of +one that they feared would be dangerous. Thus the Board of Trade was +reproduced in a job; and perhaps it is the only instance of a public +body which has never degenerated, but to this hour preserves all the +health and vigor of its primitive institution.</p> + +<p>This Board of Trade and Plantations has not been of any use to the +colonies, as colonies: so little of use, that the flourishing +settlements of New England, of Virginia, and of Maryland, and all our +wealthy colonies in the West Indies, were of a date prior to the first +board of Charles the Second. Pennsylvania and Carolina were settled +during its dark quarter, in the interval between the extinction of the +first and the formation of the second board. Two colonies alone owe +their origin to that board. Georgia, which, till lately, has made a very +slow progress,—and never did make any progress at all, until it had +wholly got rid of all the regulations which the Board of Trade had +moulded into its original constitution. That colony has cost the nation +very great sums of money; whereas the colonies which have had the +fortune of not being godfathered by the Board of Trade never cost the +nation a shilling, except what has been so properly spent in losing +them. But the colony of Georgia, weak as it was, carried with it to the +last hour, <a name="Page_345" id="Page_345" title="345" class="pagenum"></a>and carries, even in its present dead, pallid visage, the +perfect resemblance of its parents. It always had, and it now has, an +<i>establishment</i>, paid by the public of England, for the sake of the +influence of the crown: that colony having never been able or willing to +take upon itself the expense of its proper government or its own +appropriated jobs.</p> + +<p>The province of Nova Scotia was the youngest and the favorite child of +the Board. Good God! what sums the nursing of that ill-thriven, +hard-visaged, and ill-favored brat has cost to this wittol nation! Sir, +this colony has stood us in a sum of not less than seven hundred +thousand pounds. To this day it has made no repayment,—it does not even +support those offices of expense which are miscalled its government; the +whole of that job still lies upon the patient, callous shoulders of the +people of England.</p> + +<p>Sir, I am going to state a fact to you that will serve to set in full +sunshine the real value of formality and official superintendence. There +was in the province of Nova Scotia one little neglected corner, the +country of the <i>neutral French</i>; which, having the good-fortune to +escape the fostering care of both France and England, and to have been +shut out from the protection and regulation of councils of commerce and +of boards of trade, did, in silence, without notice, and without +assistance, increase to a considerable degree. But it seems our nation +had more skill and ability in destroying than in settling a colony. In +the last war, we did, in my opinion, most inhumanly, and upon pretences +that in the eye of an honest man are not worth a farthing, root out this +poor, innocent, deserving people, whom our utter inability to govern, or +to reconcile, gave us no sort <a name="Page_346" id="Page_346" title="346" class="pagenum"></a>of right to extirpate. Whatever the +merits of that extirpation might have been, it was on the footsteps of a +neglected people, it was on the fund of unconstrained poverty, it was on +the acquisitions of unregulated industry, that anything which deserves +the name of a colony in that province has been formed. It has been +formed by overflowings from the exuberant population of New England, and +by emigration from other parts of Nova Scotia of fugitives from the +protection of the Board of Trade.</p> + +<p>But if all of these things were not more than sufficient to prove to you +the inutility of that expensive establishment, I would desire you to +recollect, Sir, that those who may be very ready to defend it are very +cautious how they employ it,—cautious how they employ it even in +appearance and pretence. They are afraid they should lose the benefit of +its influence in Parliament, if they deemed to keep it up for any other +purpose. If ever there were commercial points of great weight, and most +closely connected with our dependencies, they are those which have been +agitated and decided in Parliament since I came into it. Which of the +innumerable regulations since made had their origin or their improvement +in the Board of Trade? Did any of the several East India bills which +have been successively produced since 1767 originate there? Did any one +dream of referring them, or any part of them, thither? Was anybody so +ridiculous as even to think of it? If ever there was an occasion on +which the Board was fit to be consulted, it was with regard to the acts +that were preludes to the American war, or attendant on its +commencement. Those acts were full of commercial regulations, such as +they were: the Intercourse Bill; <a name="Page_347" id="Page_347" title="347" class="pagenum"></a>the Prohibitory Bill; the Fishery +Bill. If the Board was not concerned in such things, in what particular +was it thought fit that it should be concerned? In the course of all +these bills through the House, I observed the members of that board to +be remarkably cautious of intermeddling. They understood decorum better; +they know that matters of trade and plantations are no business of +theirs.</p> + +<p>There were two very recent occasions, which, if the idea of any use for +the Board had not been extinguished by prescription, appeared loudly to +call for their interference.</p> + +<p>When commissioners were sent to pay his Majesty's and our dutiful +respects to the Congress of the United States, a part of their powers +under the commission were, it seems, of a commercial nature. They were +authorized, in the most ample and undefined manner, to form a commercial +treaty with America on the spot. This was no trivial object. As the +formation of such a treaty would necessarily have been no less than the +breaking up of our whole commercial system, and the giving it an entire +new form, one would imagine that the Board of Trade would have sat day +and night to model propositions, which, on our side, might serve as a +basis to that treaty. No such thing. Their learned leisure was not in +the least interrupted, though one of the members of the Board was a +commissioner, and might, in mere compliment to his office, have been +supposed to make a show of deliberation on the subject. But he knew that +his colleagues would have thought he laughed in their faces, had he +attempted to bring anything the most distantly relating to commerce or +colonies before <i>them</i>. A noble person, engaged in <a name="Page_348" id="Page_348" title="348" class="pagenum"></a>the same commission, +and sent to learn his commercial rudiments in New York, (then under the +operation of an act for the universal prohibition of trade,) was soon +after put at the head of that board. This contempt from the present +ministers of all the pretended functions of that board, and their manner +of breathing into its very soul, of inspiring it with its animating and +presiding principle, puts an end to all dispute concerning their opinion +of the clay it was made of. But I will give them heaped measure.</p> + +<p>It was but the other day, that the noble lord in the blue ribbon carried +up to the House of Peers two acts, altering, I think much for the +better, but altering in a great degree, our whole commercial system: +those acts, I mean, for giving a free trade to Ireland in woollens, and +in all things else, with independent nations, and giving them an equal +trade to our own colonies. Here, too, the novelty of this great, but +arduous and critical improvement of system, would make you conceive that +the anxious solicitude of the noble lord in the blue ribbon would have +wholly destroyed the plan of summer recreation of that board, by +references to examine, compare, and digest matters for Parliament. You +would imagine that Irish commissioners of customs, and English +commissioners of customs, and commissioners of excise, that merchants +and manufacturers of every denomination, had daily crowded their outer +rooms. <i>Nil horum</i>. The perpetual virtual adjournment, and the unbroken +sitting vacation of that board, was no more disturbed by the Irish than +by the plantation commerce, or any other commerce. The same matter made +a large part of the business which occupied the House for two sessions +before; and as our ministers <a name="Page_349" id="Page_349" title="349" class="pagenum"></a>were not then mellowed by the mild, +emollient, and engaging blandishments of our dear sister into all the +tenderness of unqualified surrender, the bounds and limits of a +restrained benefit naturally required much detailed management and +positive regulation. But neither the qualified propositions which were +received, nor those other qualified propositions which were rejected by +ministers, were the least concern of theirs, or were they ever thought +of in the business.</p> + +<p>It is therefore, Sir, on the opinion of Parliament, on the opinion of +the ministers, and even on their own opinion of their inutility, that I +shall propose to you to <i>suppress the Board of Trade and Plantations</i>, +and to recommit all its business to the Council, from whence it was very +improvidently taken; and which business (whatever it might be) was much +better done, and without any expense; and, indeed, where in effect it +may all come at last. Almost all that deserves the name of business +there is the reference of the plantation acts to the opinion of +gentlemen of the law. But all this may be done, as the Irish business of +the same nature has always been done, by the Council, and with a +reference to the Attorney and Solicitor General.</p> + +<p>There are some regulations in the household, relative to the officers of +the yeomen of the guards, and the officers and band of gentlemen +pensioners, which I shall likewise submit to your consideration, for the +purpose of regulating establishments which at present are much abused.</p> + +<p>I have now finished all that for the present I shall trouble you with on +the <i>plan of reduction</i>. I mean next to propose to you the <i>plan of +arrangement</i>, by which I mean to appropriate and fix the civil list +<a name="Page_350" id="Page_350" title="350" class="pagenum"></a>money to its several services according to their nature: for I am +thoroughly sensible, that, if a discretion wholly arbitrary can be +exercised over the civil list revenue, although the most effectual +methods may be taken to prevent the inferior departments from exceeding +their bounds, the plan of reformation will still be left very imperfect. +It will not, in my opinion, be safe to permit an entirely arbitrary +discretion even in the First Lord of the Treasury himself; it will not +be safe to leave with him a power of diverting the public money from its +proper objects, of paying it in an irregular course, or of inverting +perhaps the order of time, dictated by the proportion of value, which +ought to regulate his application of payment to service.</p> + +<p>I am sensible, too, that the very operation of a plan of economy which +tends to exonerate the civil list of expensive establishments may in +some sort defeat the capital end we have in view,—the independence of +Parliament; and that, in removing the public and ostensible means of +influence, we may increase the fund of private corruption. I have +thought of some methods to prevent an abuse of surplus cash under +discretionary application,—I mean the heads of <i>secret service, special +service, various payments</i>, and the like,—which I hope will answer, and +which in due time I shall lay before you. Where I am unable to limit the +quantity of the sums to be applied, by reason of the uncertain quantity +of the service, I endeavor to confine it to its <i>line</i>, to secure an +indefinite application to the definite service to which it belongs,—not +to stop the progress of expense in its line, but to confine it to that +line in which it professes to move.</p> + +<p>But that part of my plan, Sir, upon which I prin<a name="Page_351" id="Page_351" title="351" class="pagenum"></a>cipally rest, that on +which I rely for the purpose of binding up and securing the whole, is to +establish a fixed and invariable order in all its payments, which it +shall not be permitted to the First Lord of the Treasury, upon any +pretence whatsoever, to depart from. I therefore divide the civil list +payments into <i>nine</i> classes, putting each class forward according to +the importance or justice of the demand, and to the inability of the +persons entitled to enforce their pretensions: that is, to put those +first who have the most efficient offices, or claim the justest debts, +and at the same time, from the character of that description of men, +from the retiredness or the remoteness of their situation, or from their +want of weight and power to enforce their pretensions, or from their +being entirely subject to the power of a minister, without any +reciprocal power of awing, ought to be the most considered, and are the +most likely to be neglected,—all these I place in the highest classes; +I place in the lowest those whose functions are of the least importance, +but whose persons or rank are often of the greatest power and influence.</p> + +<p>In the first class I place the <i>judges</i>, as of the first importance. It +is the public justice that holds the community together; the ease, +therefore, and independence of the judges ought to supersede all other +considerations, and they ought to be the very last to feel the +necessities of the state, or to be obliged either to court or bully a +minister for their right; they ought to be as <i>weak solicitors on their +own demands</i> as strenuous assertors of the rights and liberties of +others. The judges are, or ought to be, of a <i>reserved</i> and retired +character, and wholly unconnected with the political world.<a name="Page_352" id="Page_352" title="352" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>In the second class I place the foreign ministers. The judges are the +links of our connections with one another; the foreign ministers are the +links of our connection with other nations. They are not upon the spot +to demand payment, and are therefore the most likely to be, as in fact +they have sometimes been, entirely neglected, to the great disgrace and +perhaps the great detriment of the nation.</p> + +<p>In the third class I would bring all the tradesmen who supply the crown +by contract or otherwise.</p> + +<p>In the fourth class I place all the domestic servants of the king, and +all persons in efficient offices whose salaries do not exceed two +hundred pounds a year.</p> + +<p>In the fifth, upon account of honor, which ought to give place to +nothing but charity and rigid justice, I would place the pensions and +allowances of his Majesty's royal family, comprehending of course the +queen, together with the stated allowance of the privy purse.</p> + +<p>In the sixth class I place those efficient offices of duty whose +salaries may exceed the sum of two hundred pounds a year.</p> + +<p>In the seventh class, that mixed mass, the whole pension list.</p> + +<p>In the eighth, the offices of honor about the king.</p> + +<p>In the ninth, and the last of all, the salaries and pensions of the +First Lord of the Treasury himself, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and +the other Commissioners of the Treasury.</p> + +<p>If, by any possible mismanagement of that part of the revenue which is +left at discretion, or by any other mode of prodigality, cash should be +deficient for the payment of the lowest classes, I propose that the +<a name="Page_353" id="Page_353" title="353" class="pagenum"></a>amount of those salaries where the deficiency may happen to fall shall +not be carried as debt to the account of the succeeding year, but that +it shall be entirely lapsed, sunk, and lost; so that government will be +enabled to start in the race of every new year wholly unloaded, fresh in +wind and in vigor. Hereafter no civil list debt can ever come upon the +public. And those who do not consider this as saving, because it is not +a certain sum, do not ground their calculations of the future on their +experience of the past.</p> + +<p>I know of no mode of preserving the effectual execution of any duty, but +to make it the direct interest of the executive officer that it shall be +faithfully performed. Assuming, then, that the present vast allowance to +the civil list is perfectly adequate to all its purposes, if there +should be any failure, it must be from the mismanagement or neglect of +the First Commissioner of the Treasury; since, upon the proposed plan, +there can be no expense of any consequence which he is not himself +previously to authorize and finally to control. It is therefore just, as +well as politic, that the loss should attach upon the delinquency.</p> + +<p>If the failure from the delinquency should be very considerable, it will +fall on the class directly above the First Lord of the Treasury, as well +as upon himself and his board. It will fall, as it ought to fall, upon +offices of no primary importance in the state; but then it will fall +upon persons whom it will be a matter of no slight importance for a +minister to provoke: it will fall upon persons of the first rank and +consequence in the kingdom,—upon those who are nearest to the king, and +frequently have a more interior credit with him than the minister +himself. It will <a name="Page_354" id="Page_354" title="354" class="pagenum"></a>fall upon masters of the horse, upon lord +chamberlains, upon lord stewards, upon grooms of the stole, and lords of +the bedchamber. The household troops form an army, who will be ready to +mutiny for want of pay, and whose mutiny will be <i>really</i> dreadful to a +commander-in-chief. A rebellion of the thirteen lords of the bedchamber +would be far more terrible to a minister, and would probably affect his +power more to the quick, than a revolt of thirteen colonies. What an +uproar such an event would create at court! What <i>petitions</i>, and +<i>committees</i>, and <i>associations</i>, would it not produce! Bless me! what a +clattering of white sticks and yellow sticks would be about his head! +what a storm of gold keys would fly about the ears of the minister! what +a shower of Georges, and thistles, and medals, and collars of S.S. would +assail him at his first entrance into the antechamber, after an +insolvent Christmas quarter!—a tumult which could not be appeased by +all the harmony of the new year's ode. Rebellion it is certain there +would be; and rebellion may not now, indeed, be so critical an event to +those who engage in it, since its price is so correctly ascertained at +just a thousand pound.</p> + +<p>Sir, this classing, in my opinion, is a serious and solid security for +the performance of a minister's duty. Lord Coke says, that the staff was +put into the Treasurer's hand to enable him to support himself when +there was no money in the Exchequer, and to beat away importunate +solicitors. The method which I propose would hinder him from the +necessity of such a broken staff to lean on, or such a miserable weapon +for repulsing the demands of worthless suitors, who, the noble lord in +the blue ribbon knows, will bear many hard blows on the head, and many +other <a name="Page_355" id="Page_355" title="355" class="pagenum"></a>indignities, before they are driven from the Treasury. In this +plan, he is furnished with an answer to all their importunity,—an +answer far more conclusive than if he had knocked them down with his +staff:—"Sir, (or my Lord,) you are calling for my own salary,—Sir, you +are calling for the appointments of my colleagues who sit about me in +office,—Sir, you are going to excite a mutiny at court against me,—you +are going to estrange his Majesty's confidence from me, through the +chamberlain, or the master of the horse, or the groom of the stole."</p> + +<p>As things now stand, every man, in proportion to his consequence at +court, tends to add to the expenses of the civil list, by all manner of +jobs, if not for himself, yet for his dependants. When the new plan is +established, those who are now suitors for jobs will become the most +strenuous opposers of them. They will have a common interest with the +minister in public economy. Every class, as it stands low, will become +security for the payment of the preceding class; and thus the persons +whose insignificant services defraud those that are useful would then +become interested in their payment. Then the powerful, instead of +oppressing, would be obliged to support the weak; and idleness would +become concerned in the reward of industry. The whole fabric of the +civil economy would become compact and connected in all its parts; it +would be formed into a well-organized body, where every member +contributes to the support of the whole, and where even the lazy stomach +secures the vigor of the active arm.</p> + +<p>This plan, I really flatter myself, is laid, not in official formality, +nor in airy speculation, but in real life, and in human nature, in what +"comes home" (as<a name="Page_356" id="Page_356" title="356" class="pagenum"></a> Bacon says) "to the business and bosoms of men." You +have now, Sir, before you, the whole of my scheme, as far as I have +digested it into a form that might be in any respect worthy of your +consideration. I intend to lay it before you in five bills.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44" /><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor" +title="Titles of the bills read.">[44]</a> The plan +consists, indeed, of many parts; but they stand upon a few plain +principles. It is a plan which takes nothing from the civil list without +discharging it of a burden equal to the sum carried to the public +service. It weakens no one function necessary to government; but, on the +contrary, by appropriating supply to service, it gives it greater vigor. +It provides the means of order and foresight to a minister of finance, +which may always keep all the objects of his office, and their state, +condition, and relations, distinctly before him. It brings forward +accounts without hurrying and distressing the accountants: whilst it +provides for public convenience, it regards private rights. It +extinguishes secret corruption almost to the possibility of its +existence. It destroys direct and visible influence equal to the offices +of at least fifty members of Parliament. Lastly, it prevents the +provision for his Majesty's children from being diverted to the +political purposes of his minister.</p> + +<p>These are the points on which I rely for the merit of the plan. I pursue +economy in a secondary view, and only as it is connected with these +great objects. I am persuaded, that even for supply this scheme will be +far from unfruitful, if it be executed to the extent I propose it. I +think it will give to the public, at its periods, two or three hundred +thousand pounds a year; if not, it will give them a system of economy, +which is itself a great revenue. It gives me no little <a name="Page_357" id="Page_357" title="357" class="pagenum"></a>pride and +satisfaction to find that the principles of my proceedings are in many +respects the very same with those which are now pursued in the plans of +the French minister of finance. I am sure that I lay before you a scheme +easy and practicable in all its parts. I know it is common at once to +applaud and to reject all attempts of this nature. I know it is common +for men to say, that such and such things are perfectly right, very +desirable,—but that, unfortunately, they are not practicable. Oh, no, +Sir! no! Those things-which are not practicable are not desirable. There +is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the +reach of an informed understanding and a well-directed pursuit. There is +nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the +means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world. If we cry, +like children, for the moon, like children we must cry on.</p> + +<p>We must follow the nature of our affairs, and conform ourselves to our +situation. If we do, our objects are plain and compassable. Why should +we resolve to do nothing, because what I propose to you may not be the +exact demand of the petition, when we are far from resolved to comply +even with what evidently is so? Does this sort of chicanery become us? +The people are the masters. They have only to express their wants at +large and in gross. We are the expert artists, we are the skilful +workmen, to shape their desires into perfect form, and to fit the +utensil to the use. They are the sufferers, they tell the symptoms of +the complaint; but we know the exact seat of the disease, and how to +apply the remedy according to the rules of art. How shocking would it be +to see us pervert our skill into a sinister and servile dexter<a name="Page_358" id="Page_358" title="358" class="pagenum"></a>ity, for +the purpose of evading our duty, and defrauding our employers, who are +our natural lords, of the object of their just expectations! I think the +whole not only practicable, but practicable in a very short time. If we +are in earnest about it, and if we exert that industry and those talents +in forwarding the work, which, I am afraid, may be exerted in impeding +it, I engage that the whole may be put in complete execution within a +year. For my own part, I have very little to recommend me for this or +for any task, but a kind of earnest and anxious perseverance of mind, +which, with all its good and all its evil effects, is moulded into my +constitution. I faithfully engage to the House, if they choose to +appoint me to any part in the execution of this work, (which, when they +have made it theirs by the improvements of their wisdom, will be worthy +of the able assistance they may give me,) that by night and by day, in +town or in country, at the desk or in the forest, I will, without regard +to convenience, ease, or pleasure, devote myself to their service, not +expecting or admitting any reward whatsoever. I owe to this country my +labor, which is my all; and I owe to it ten times more industry, if ten +times more I could exert. After all, I shall be an unprofitable servant.</p> + +<p>At the same time, if I am able, and if I shall be permitted, I will lend +an humble helping hand to any other good work which is going on. I have +not, Sir, the frantic presumption to suppose that this plan contains in +it the whole of what the public has a right to expect in the great work +of reformation they call for. Indeed, it falls infinitely short of it. +It falls short even of my own ideas. I have some thoughts, not yet fully +ripened, relative to a reform in the cus<a name="Page_359" id="Page_359" title="359" class="pagenum"></a>toms and excise, as well as in +some other branches of financial administration. There are other things, +too, which form essential parts in a great plan for the purpose of +restoring the independence of Parliament. The contractors' bill of last +year it is fit to revive; and I rejoice that it is in better hands than +mine. The bill for suspending the votes of custom-house officers, +brought into Parliament several years ago by one of our worthiest and +wisest members,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45" /><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor" +title="W. Dowdeswell, Esq., Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1765.">[45]</a>—would to God we could along with the plan revive +the person who designed it! but a man of very real integrity, honor, and +ability will be found to take his place, and to carry his idea into full +execution. You all see how necessary it is to review our military +expenses for some years past, and, if possible, to bind up and close +that bleeding artery of profusion; but that business also, I have reason +to hope, will be undertaken by abilities that are fully adequate to it. +Something must be devised (if possible) to check the ruinous expense of +elections.</p> + +<p>Sir, all or most of these things must be done. Every one must take his +part. If we should be able, by dexterity, or power, or intrigue, to +disappoint the expectations of our constituents, what will it avail us? +We shall never be strong or artful enough to parry, or to put by, the +irresistible demands of our situation. That situation calls upon us, and +upon our constituents too, with a voice which <i>will</i> be heard. I am sure +no man is more zealously attached than I am to the privileges of this +House, particularly in regard to the exclusive management of money. The +Lords have no right to the disposition, in any sense, of the public +purse; but they have gone <a name="Page_360" id="Page_360" title="360" class="pagenum"></a>further in self-denial +<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46" /><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor" title="Rejection of Lord Shelburne's motion in the House of Lords.">[46]</a> than our utmost +jealousy could have required. A power of examining accounts, to censure, +correct, and punish, we never, that I know of, have thought of denying +to the House of Lords. It is something more than a century since we +voted that body useless: they have now voted themselves so. The whole +hope of reformation is at length cast upon <i>us</i>; and let us not deceive +the nation, which does us the honor to hope everything from our virtue. +If <i>all</i> the nation are not equally forward to press this duty upon us, +yet be assured that they all equally expect we should perform it. The +respectful silence of those who wait upon your pleasure ought to be as +powerful with you as the call of those who require your service as their +right. Some, without doors, affect to feel hurt for your dignity, +because they suppose that menaces are held out to you. Justify their +good opinion by showing that no menaces are necessary to stimulate you +to your duty. But, Sir, whilst we may sympathize with them in one point +who sympathize with us in another, we ought to attend no less to those +who approach us like men, and who, in the guise of petitioners, speak to +us in the tone of a concealed authority. It is not wise to force them to +speak out more plainly what they plainly mean.—But the petitioners are +violent. Be it so. Those who are least anxious about your conduct are +not those that love you most. Moderate affection and satiated enjoyment +are cold and respectful; but an ardent and injured passion is tempered +up with wrath, and grief, and shame, and conscious worth, and the +maddening sense of violated right. A jealous love lights his torch from +the firebrands of the furies. They who <a name="Page_361" id="Page_361" title="361" class="pagenum"></a>call upon you to belong <i>wholly</i> +to the people are those who wish you to return to your <i>proper</i> +home,—to the sphere of your duty, to the post of your honor, to the +mansion-house of all genuine, serene, and solid satisfaction. We have +furnished to the people of England (indeed we have) some real cause of +jealousy. Let us leave that sort of company which, if it does not +destroy our innocence, pollutes our honor; let us free ourselves at once +from everything that can increase their suspicions and inflame their +just resentment; let us cast away from us, with a generous scorn, all +the love-tokens and symbols that we have been vain and light enough to +accept,—all the bracelets, and snuff-boxes, and miniature pictures, and +hair devices, and all the other adulterous trinkets that are the pledges +of our alienation and the monuments of our shame. Let us return to our +legitimate home, and all jars and all quarrels will be lost in embraces. +Let the commons in Parliament assembled be one and the same thing with +the commons at large. The distinctions that are made to separate us are +unnatural and wicked contrivances. Let us identify, let us incorporate +ourselves with the people. Let us cut all the cables and snap the chains +which tie us to an unfaithful shore, and enter the friendly harbor that +shoots far out into the main its moles and jetties to receive us. "War +with the world, and peace with our constituents." Be this our motto, and +our principle. Then, indeed, we shall be truly great. Respecting +ourselves, we shall be respected by the world. At present all is +troubled, and cloudy, and distracted, and full of anger and turbulence, +both abroad and at home; but the air may be cleared by this storm, and +light and fertility may follow it. Let us give a faith<a name="Page_362" id="Page_362" title="362" class="pagenum"></a>ful pledge to the +people, that we honor, indeed, the crown, but that we <i>belong</i> to them; +that we are their auxiliaries, and not their task-masters,—the +fellow-laborers in the same vineyard, not lording over their rights, but +helpers of their joy; that to tax them is a grievance to ourselves, but +to cut off from our enjoyments to forward theirs is the highest +gratification we are capable of receiving. I feel, with comfort, that we +are all warmed with these sentiments, and while we are thus warm, I wish +we may go directly and with a cheerful heart to this salutary work.</p> + +<p>Sir, I move for leave to bring in a bill, "For the better regulation of +his Majesty's civil establishments, and of certain public offices; for +the limitation of pensions, and the suppression of sundry useless, +expensive, and inconvenient places, and for applying the moneys saved +thereby to the public service."<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47" /><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor" +title="The motion was seconded by Mr. Fox.">[47]</a></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Lord North stated, that there was a difference between this bill for +regulating the establishments and some of the others, as they affected +the ancient patrimony of the crown, and therefore wished them to be +postponed till the king's consent could be obtained. This distinction +was strongly controverted; but when it was insisted on as a point of +decorum <i>only</i>, it was agreed to postpone them to another day. +Accordingly, on the Monday following, viz. Feb. 14, leave was given, on +the motion of Mr. Burke, without opposition, to bring in—</p> + +<p>1st, "A bill for the sale of the forest and other crown lands, rents, +and hereditaments, with certain exceptions, <i>and for applying the +produce thereof to the public service</i><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363" title="363" class="pagenum"></a>; and for securing, ascertaining, +and satisfying <i>tenant rights</i>, and common and other rights."</p> + +<p>2nd, "A bill for the more perfectly uniting to the crown the +Principality of Wales and the County Palatine of Chester, and for the +more commodious administration of justice within the same; as also for +abolishing certain offices now appertaining thereto, <i>for quieting +dormant claims, ascertaining and securing tenant rights</i>, and for the +sale of all forest lands, and other lands, tenements, and hereditaments, +held by his Majesty in right of the said Principality, or County +Palatine of Chester, <i>and for applying the produce thereof to the public +service</i>."</p> + +<p>3rd, "A bill for uniting to the crown the Duchy and County Palatine of +Lancaster, for the suppression of unnecessary offices now belonging +thereto, for the <i>ascertainment and security of tenant and other +rights</i>, and for the sale of all rents, lands, tenements, and +hereditaments, and forests, within the said Duchy and County Palatine, +or either of them, <i>and for applying the produce thereof to the public +service</i>."</p> + +<p>And it was ordered that Mr. Burke, Mr. Fox, Lord John Cavendish, Sir +George Savile, Colonel Barré, Mr. Thomas Townshend, Mr. Byng, Mr. +Dunning, Sir Joseph Mawbey, Mr. Recorder of London, Sir Robert Clayton, +Mr. Frederick Montagu, the Earl of Upper Ossory, Sir William Guise, and +Mr. Gilbert do prepare and bring in the same.</p> + +<p>At the same time, Mr. Burke moved for leave to bring in—</p> + +<p>4th, "A bill for uniting the Duchy of Cornwall to the crown; for the +suppression of certain unnecessary offices now belonging thereto; for +the <a name="Page_364" id="Page_364" title="364" class="pagenum"></a><i>ascertainment and security of tenant and other rights</i>; and for +the sale of certain rents, lands, and tenements, within or belonging to +the said Duchy; <i>and for applying the produce thereof to the public +service</i>."</p> + +<p>But some objections being made by the Surveyor-General of the Duchy +concerning the rights of the Prince of Wales, now in his minority, and +Lord North remaining perfectly silent, Mr. Burke, at length, though he +strongly contended against the principle of the objection, consented to +withdraw this last motion <i>for the present</i>, to be renewed upon an early +occasion.<a name="Page_365" id="Page_365" title="365" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31" /><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> This term comprehends various retributions made to persons +whose offices are taken away, or who in any other way suffer by the new +arrangements that are made.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32" /><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Edict registered 29th January, 1780.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33" /><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Thomas Gilbert, Esq., member for Lichfield.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34" /><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Here Lord North shook his head, and told those who sat +near him that Mr. Probert's pension was to depend on his success. It may +be so. Mr. Probert's pension was, however, no essential part of the +question; nor did Mr. B. care whether he still possessed it or not. His +point was, to show the ridicule of attempting an improvement of the +Welsh revenue under its present establishment.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35" /><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Case of Richard Lee, Esq., appellant, against George +Venables Lord Vernon, respondent, in the year 1775.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36" /><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Vide Lord Talbot's speech in Almon's Parliamentary +Register. Vol VII. p. 79, of the Proceedings of the Lords.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37" /><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> More exactly, 378,616<i>l.</i> 10 <i>s.</i> 1¾ <i>d.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38" /><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Et quaunt viscount ou baillif eit comence de acompter, nul +autre ne seit resceu de aconter tanque le primer qe soit assis eit +peraccompte, et qe la somme soit resceu.—Stat. 5. Ann Dom. 1266.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39" /><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Summum jus summa injuria.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40" /><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> It was supposed by the Lord Advocate, in a subsequent +debate, that Mr. Burke, because he objected to an inquiry into the +pension list for the purpose of economy and relief of the public, would +have it withheld from the judgment of Parliament for all purposes +whatsoever. This learned gentleman certainly misunderstood him. His plan +shows that he wished the whole list to be easily accessible; and he +knows that the public eye is of itself a great guard against abuse.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41" /><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Before the statute of Queen Anne, which limited the +alienation of land.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42" /><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Duke of Newcastle, whose dining-room is under the House of +Commons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43" /><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Letters between Dr. Addington and Sir James Wright.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44" /><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Titles of the bills read.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45" /><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> W. Dowdeswell, Esq., Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1765.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46" /><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Rejection of Lord Shelburne's motion in the House of +Lords.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47" /><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> The motion was seconded by Mr. Fox.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="GUILDHALL_IN_BRISTOL" id="GUILDHALL_IN_BRISTOL" />SPEECH<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">AT THE</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%">GUILDHALL IN BRISTOL, PREVIOUS TO THE LATE ELECTION IN THAT CITY,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">UPON</span><br /> +<br /> +CERTAIN POINTS RELATIVE TO HIS PARLIAMENTARY CONDUCT.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">1780.</span></h2> +<p><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366" title="366" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367" title="367" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Mr. Mayor, and Gentlemen,—I am extremely pleased at the appearance of +this large and respectable meeting. The steps I may be obliged to take +will want the sanction of a considerable authority; and in explaining +anything which may appear doubtful in my public conduct, I must +naturally desire a very full audience.</p> + +<p>I have been backward to begin my canvass. The dissolution of the +Parliament was uncertain; and it did not become me, by an unseasonable +importunity, to appear diffident of the effect of my six years' +endeavors to please you. I had served the city of Bristol honorably, and +the city of Bristol had no reason to think that the means of honorable +service to the public were become indifferent to me.</p> + +<p>I found, on my arrival here, that three gentlemen had been long in eager +pursuit of an object which but two of us can obtain. I found that they +had all met with encouragement. A contested election in such a city as +this is no light thing. I paused on the brink of the precipice. These +three gentlemen, by various merits, and on various titles, I made no +doubt were worthy of your favor. I shall never attempt to raise myself +by depreciating the merits of my competitors. In the complexity and +confusion of these cross pursuits, I wished to take the authentic public +sense of my friends upon a business of so much delicacy. I <a name="Page_368" id="Page_368" title="368" class="pagenum"></a>wished to +take your opinion along with me, that, if I should give up the contest +at the very beginning, my surrender of my post may not seem the effect +of inconstancy, or timidity, or anger, or disgust, or indolence, or any +other temper unbecoming a man who has engaged in the public service. If, +on the contrary, I should undertake the election, and fail of success, I +was full as anxious that it should be manifest to the whole world that +the peace of the city had not been broken by my rashness, presumption, +or fond conceit of my own merit.</p> + +<p>I am not come, by a false and counterfeit show of deference to your +judgment, to seduce it in my favor. I ask it seriously and unaffectedly. +If you wish that I should retire, I shall not consider that advice as a +censure upon my conduct, or an alteration in your sentiments, but as a +rational submission to the circumstances of affairs. If, on the +contrary, you should think it proper for me to proceed on my canvass, if +you will risk the trouble on your part, I will risk it on mine. My +pretensions are such as you cannot be ashamed of, whether they succeed +or fail.</p> + +<p>If you call upon me, I shall solicit the favor of the city upon manly +ground. I come before you with the plain confidence of an honest servant +in the equity of a candid and discerning master. I come to claim your +approbation, not to amuse you with vain apologies, or with professions +still more vain and senseless. I have lived too long to be served by +apologies, or to stand in need of them. The part I have acted has been +in open day; and to hold out to a conduct which stands in that clear and +steady light for all its good and all its evil, to hold out to that +conduct the paltry winking tapers of excuses and promises,—<a name="Page_369" id="Page_369" title="369" class="pagenum"></a>I never +will do it. They may obscure it with their smoke, but they never can +illumine sunshine by such a flame as theirs.</p> + +<p>I am sensible that no endeavors have been left untried to injure me in +your opinion. But the use of character is to be a shield against +calumny. I could wish, undoubtedly, (if idle wishes were not the most +idle of all things,) to make every part of my conduct agreeable to every +one of my constituents; but in so great a city, and so greatly divided +as this, it is weak to expect it.</p> + +<p>In such a discordancy of sentiments it is better to look to the nature +of things than to the humors of men. The very attempt towards pleasing +everybody discovers a temper always flashy, and often false and +insincere. Therefore, as I have proceeded straight onward in my conduct, +so I will proceed in my account of those parts of it which have been +most excepted to. But I must first beg leave just to hint to you that we +may suffer very great detriment by being open to every talker. It is not +to be imagined how much of service is lost from spirits full of activity +and full of energy, who are pressing, who are rushing forward, to great +and capital objects, when you oblige them to be continually looking +back. Whilst they are defending one service, they defraud you of an +hundred. Applaud us when we run, console us when we fall, cheer us when +we recover; but let us pass on,—for God's sake, let us pass on!</p> + +<p>Do you think, Gentlemen, that every public act in the six years since I +stood in this place before you, that all the arduous things which have +been done in this eventful period which has crowded into a few years' +space the revolutions of an age, can be opened <a name="Page_370" id="Page_370" title="370" class="pagenum"></a>to you on their fair +grounds in half an hour's conversation?</p> + +<p>But it is no reason, because there is a bad mode of inquiry, that there +should be no examination at all. Most certainly it is our duty to +examine; it is our interest, too: but it must be with discretion, with +an attention to all the circumstances and to all the motives; like sound +judges, and not like cavilling pettifoggers and quibbling pleaders, +prying into flaws and hunting for exceptions. Look, Gentlemen, to the +<i>whole tenor</i> of your member's conduct. Try whether his ambition or his +avarice have justled him out of the straight line of duty,—or whether +that grand foe of the offices of active life, that master vice in men of +business, a degenerate and inglorious sloth, has made him flag and +languish in his course. This is the object of our inquiry. If our +member's conduct can bear this touch, mark it for sterling. He may have +fallen into errors, he must have faults; but our error is greater, and +our fault is radically ruinous to ourselves, if we do not bear, if we do +not even applaud, the whole compound and mixed mass of such a character. +Not to act thus is folly; I had almost said it is impiety. He censures +God who quarrels with the imperfections of man.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, we must not be peevish with those who serve the people; for +none will serve us, whilst there is a court to serve, but those who are +of a nice and jealous honor. They who think everything, in comparison of +that honor, to be dust and ashes, will not bear to have it soiled and +impaired by those for whose sake they make a thousand sacrifices to +preserve it immaculate and whole. We shall either drive such men from +the public stage, or we shall send them to <a name="Page_371" id="Page_371" title="371" class="pagenum"></a>the court for protection, +where, if they must sacrifice their reputation, they will at least +secure their interest. Depend upon it, that the lovers of freedom will +be free. None will violate their conscience to please us, in order +afterwards to discharge that conscience, which they have violated, by +doing us faithful and affectionate service. If we degrade and deprave +their minds by servility, it will be absurd to expect that they who are +creeping and abject towards us will ever be bold and incorruptible +assertors of our freedom against the most seducing and the most +formidable of all powers. No! human nature is not so formed: nor shall +we improve the faculties or better the morals of public men by our +possession of the most infallible receipt in the world for making cheats +and hypocrites.</p> + +<p>Let me say, with plainness, I who am no longer in a public character, +that, if, by a fair, by an indulgent, by a gentlemanly behavior to our +representatives, we do not give confidence to their minds and a liberal +scope to their understandings, if we do not permit our members to act +upon a <i>very</i> enlarged view of things, we shall at length infallibly +degrade our national representation into a confused and scuffling bustle +of local agency. When the popular member is narrowed in his ideas and +rendered timid in his proceedings, the service of the crown will be the +sole nursery of statesmen. Among the frolics of the court, it may at +length take that of attending to its business. Then the monopoly of +mental power will be added to the power of all other kinds it possesses. +On the side of the people there will be nothing but impotence: for +ignorance is impotence; narrowness of mind is impotence; timidity is +itself impotence, <a name="Page_372" id="Page_372" title="372" class="pagenum"></a>and makes all other qualities that go along with it +impotent and useless.</p> + +<p>At present it is the plan of the court to make its servants +insignificant. If the people should fall into the same humor, and should +choose their servants on the same principles of mere obsequiousness and +flexibility and total vacancy or indifference of opinion in all public +matters, then no part of the state will be sound, and it will be in vain +to think of saving it.</p> + +<p>I thought it very expedient at this time to give you this candid +counsel; and with this counsel I would willingly close, if the matters +which at various times have been objected to me in this city concerned +only myself and my own election. These charges, I think, are four in +number: my neglect of a due attention to my constituents, the not paying +more frequent visits here; my conduct on the affairs of the first Irish +Trade Acts; my opinion and mode of proceeding on Lord Beauchamp's +Debtors' Bills; and my votes on the late affairs of the Roman Catholics. +All of these (except perhaps the first) relate to matters of very +considerable public concern; and it is not lest you should censure me +improperly, but lest you should form improper opinions on matters of +some moment to you, that I trouble you at all upon the subject. My +conduct is of small importance.</p> + +<p>With regard to the first charge, my friends have spoken to ms of it in +the style of amicable expostulation,—not so much blaming the thing as +lamenting the effects. Others, less partial to me, were less kind in +assigning the motives. I admit, there is a decorum and propriety in a +member of Parliament's paying a respectful court to his constituents. If +I were conscious to myself that pleasure, or dissipation, <a name="Page_373" id="Page_373" title="373" class="pagenum"></a>or low, +unworthy occupations had detained me from personal attendance on you, I +would readily admit my fault, and quietly submit to the penalty. But, +Gentlemen, I live at an hundred miles' distance from Bristol; and at the +end of a session I come to my own house, fatigued in body and in mind, +to a little repose, and to a very little attention to my family and my +private concerns. A visit to Bristol is always a sort of canvass, else +it will do more harm than good. To pass from the toils of a session to +the toils of a canvass is the furthest thing in the world from repose. I +could hardly serve you <i>as I have done</i>, and court you too. Most of you +have heard that I do not very remarkably spare myself in <i>public</i> +business; and in the <i>private</i> business of my constituents I have done +very near as much as those who have nothing else to do. My canvass of +you was not on the 'change, nor in the county meetings, nor in the clubs +of this city: it was in the House of Commons; it was at the +Custom-House; it was at the Council; it was at the Treasury; it was at +the Admiralty. I canvassed you through your affairs, and not your +persons. I was not only your representative as a body; I was the agent, +the solicitor of individuals; I ran about wherever your affairs could +call me; and in acting for you, I often appeared rather as a ship-broker +than as a member of Parliament. There was nothing too laborious or too +low for me to undertake. The meanness of the business was raised by the +dignity of the object. If some lesser matters have slipped through my +fingers, it was because I filled my hands too full, and, in my eagerness +to serve you, took in more than any hands could grasp. Several gentlemen +stand round me who are my willing witnesses; <a name="Page_374" id="Page_374" title="374" class="pagenum"></a>and there are others who, +if they were here, would be still better, because they would be +unwilling witnesses to the same truth. It was in the middle of a summer +residence in London, and in the middle of a negotiation at the Admiralty +for your trade, that I was called to Bristol; and this late visit, at +this late day, has been possibly in prejudice to your affairs.</p> + +<p>Since I have touched upon this matter, let me say, Gentlemen, that, if I +had a disposition or a right to complain, I have some cause of complaint +on my side. With a petition of this city in my hand, passed through the +corporation without a dissenting voice, a petition in unison with almost +the whole voice of the kingdom, (with whose formal thanks I was covered +over,) whilst I labored on no less than five bills for a public reform, +and fought, against the opposition of great abilities and of the +greatest power, every clause and every word of the largest of those +bills, almost to the very last day of a very long session,—all this +time a canvass in Bristol was as calmly carried on as if I were dead. I +was considered as a man wholly out of the question. Whilst I watched and +fasted and sweated in the House of Commons, by the most easy and +ordinary arts of election, by dinners and visits, by "How do you dos," +and "My worthy friends," I was to be quietly moved out of my seat,—and +promises were made, and engagements entered into, without any exception +or reserve, as if my laborious zeal in my duty had been a regular +abdication of my trust.</p> + +<p>To open my whole heart to you on this subject, I do confess, however, +that there were other times, besides the two years in which I did visit +you, when I was not wholly without leisure for repeating that <a name="Page_375" id="Page_375" title="375" class="pagenum"></a>mark of +my respect. But I could not bring my mind to see you. You remember that +in the beginning of this American war (that era of calamity, disgrace, +and downfall, an era which no feeling mind will ever mention without a +tear for England) you were greatly divided,—and a very strong body, if +not the strongest, opposed itself to the madness which every art and +every power were employed to render popular, in order that the errors of +the rulers might be lost in the general blindness of the nation. This +opposition continued until after our great, but most unfortunate victory +at Long Island. Then all the mounds and banks of our constancy were +borne down, at once, and the frenzy of the American war broke in upon us +like a deluge. This victory, which seemed to put an immediate end to all +difficulties, perfected us in that spirit of domination which our +unparalleled prosperity had but too long nurtured. We had been so very +powerful, and so very prosperous, that even the humblest of us were +degraded into the vices and follies of kings. We lost all measure +between means and ends; and our headlong desires became our politics and +our morals. All men who wished for peace, or retained any sentiments of +moderation, were overborne or silenced; and this city was led by every +artifice (and probably with the more management because I was one of +your members) to distinguish itself by its zeal for that fatal cause. In +this temper of yours and of my mind, I should sooner have fled to the +extremities of the earth than hate shown myself here. I, who saw in +every American victory (for you have had a long series of these +misfortunes) the germ and seed of the naval power of France and Spain, +which all our heat and warmth against America was <a name="Page_376" id="Page_376" title="376" class="pagenum"></a>only hatching into +life,—I should not have been a welcome visitant, with the brow and the +language of such feelings. When afterwards the other face of your +calamity was turned upon you, and showed itself in defeat and distress, +I shunned you full as much. I felt sorely this variety in our +wretchedness; and I did not wish to have the least appearance of +insulting you with that show of superiority, which, though it may not be +assumed, is generally suspected, in a time of calamity, from those whose +previous warnings have been despised. I could not bear to show you a +representative whose face did not reflect that of his constituents,—a +face that could not joy in your joys, and sorrow in your sorrows. But +time at length has made us all of one opinion, and we have all opened +our eyes on the true nature of the American war,—to the true nature of +all its successes and all its failures.</p> + +<p>In that public storm, too, I had my private feelings. I had seen blown +down and prostrate on the ground several of those houses to whom I was +chiefly indebted for the honor this city has done me. I confess, that, +whilst the wounds of those I loved were yet green, I could not bear to +show myself in pride and triumph in that place into which their +partiality had brought me, and to appear at feasts and rejoicings in the +midst of the grief and calamity of my warm friends, my zealous +supporters, my generous benefactors. This is a true, unvarnished, +undisguised state of the affair. You will judge of it.</p> + +<p>This is the only one of the charges in which I am personally concerned. +As to the other matters objected against me, which in their turn I shall +mention to you, remember once more I do not mean to extenuate or excuse. +Why should I, when the things <a name="Page_377" id="Page_377" title="377" class="pagenum"></a>charged are among those upon which I +found all my reputation? What would be left to me, if I myself was the +man who softened and blended and diluted and weakened all the +distinguishing colors of my life, so as to leave nothing distinct and +determinate in my whole conduct?</p> + +<p>It has been said, and it is the second charge, that in the questions of +the Irish trade I did not consult the interest of my constituents,—or, +to speak out strongly, that I rather acted as a native of Ireland than +as an English member of Parliament.</p> + +<p>I certainly have very warm good wishes for the place of my birth. But +the sphere of my duties is my true country. It was as a man attached to +your interests, and zealous for the conservation of your power and +dignity, that I acted on that occasion, and on all occasions. You were +involved in the American war. A new world of policy was opened, to which +it was necessary we should conform, whether we would or not; and my only +thought was how to conform to our situation in such a manner as to unite +to this kingdom, in prosperity and in affection, whatever remained of +the empire. I was true to my old, standing, invariable principle, that +all things which came from Great Britain should issue as a gift of her +bounty and beneficence, rather than as claims recovered against a +struggling litigant,—or at least, that, if your beneficence obtained no +credit in your concessions, yet that they should appear the salutary +provisions of your wisdom and foresight, not as things wrung from you +with your blood by the cruel gripe of a rigid necessity. The first +concessions, by being (much against my will) mangled and stripped of the +parts which were necessary to make out their just <a name="Page_378" id="Page_378" title="378" class="pagenum"></a>correspondence and +connection in trade, were of no use. The next year a feeble attempt was +made to bring the thing into better shape. This attempt, (countenanced +by the minister,) on the very first appearance of some popular +uneasiness, was, after a considerable progress through the House, thrown +out by <i>him</i>.</p> + +<p>What was the consequence? The whole kingdom of Ireland was instantly in +a flame. Threatened by foreigners, and, as they thought, insulted by +England, they resolved at once to resist the power of France and to cast +off yours. As for us, we were able neither to protect nor to restrain +them. Forty thousand men were raised and disciplined without commission +from the crown. Two illegal armies were seen with banners displayed at +the same time and in the same country. No executive magistrate, no +judicature, in Ireland, would acknowledge the legality of the army which +bore the king's commission; and no law, or appearance of law, authorized +the army commissioned by itself. In this unexampled state of things, +which the least error, the least trespass on the right or left, would +have hurried down the precipice into an abyss of blood and confusion, +the people of Ireland demand a freedom of trade with arms in their +hands. They interdict all commerce between the two nations. They deny +all new supply in the House of Commons, although in time of war. They +stint the trust of the old revenue, given for two years to all the +king's predecessors, to six months. The British Parliament, in a former +session, frightened into a limited concession by the menaces of Ireland, +frightened out of it by the menaces of England, was now frightened back +again, and made an universal <a name="Page_379" id="Page_379" title="379" class="pagenum"></a>surrender of all that had been thought the +peculiar, reserved, uncommunicable rights of England: the exclusive +commerce of America, of Africa, of the West Indies,—all the +enumerations of the Acts of Navigation,—all the manufactures,—iron, +glass, even the last pledge of jealousy and pride, the interest hid in +the secret of our hearts, the inveterate prejudice moulded into the +constitution of our frame, even the sacred fleece itself, all went +together. No reserve, no exception; no debate, no discussion. A sudden +light broke in upon us all. It broke in, not through well-contrived and +well-disposed windows, but through flaws and breaches,—through the +yawning chasms of our ruin. We were taught wisdom by humiliation. No +town in England presumed to have a prejudice, or dared to mutter a +petition. What was worse, the whole Parliament of England, which +retained authority for nothing but surrenders, was despoiled of every +shadow of its superintendence. It was, without any qualification, denied +in theory, as it had been trampled upon in practice. This scene of shame +and disgrace has, in a manner, whilst I am speaking, ended by the +perpetual establishment of a military power in the dominions of this +crown, without consent of the British legislature, +<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48" /><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor" title="Irish Perpetual Mutiny Act.">[48]</a> contrary to the +policy of the Constitution, contrary to the Declaration of Right; and by +this your liberties are swept away along with your supreme +authority,—and both, linked together from the beginning, have, I am +afraid, both together perished forever.</p> + +<p>What! Gentlemen, was I not to foresee, or foreseeing, was I not to +endeavor to save you from all these multiplied mischiefs and disgraces? +Would the little, <a name="Page_380" id="Page_380" title="380" class="pagenum"></a>silly, canvass prattle of obeying instructions, and +having no opinions but yours, and such idle, senseless tales, which +amuse the vacant ears of unthinking men, have saved you from "the +pelting of that pitiless storm," to which the loose improvidence, the +cowardly rashness, of those who dare not look danger in the face so as +to provide against it in time, and therefore throw themselves headlong +into the midst of it, have exposed this degraded nation, beat down and +prostrate on the earth, unsheltered, unarmed, unresisting? Was I an +Irishman on that day that I boldly withstood our pride? or on the day +that I hung down my head, and wept in shame and silence over the +humiliation of Great Britain? I became unpopular in England for the one, +and in Ireland for the other. What then? What obligation lay on me to be +popular? I was bound to serve both kingdoms. To be pleased with my +service was their affair, not mine.</p> + +<p>I was an Irishman in the Irish business, just as much as I was an +American, when, on the same principles, I wished you to concede to +America at a time when she prayed concession at our feet. Just as much +was I an American, when I wished Parliament to offer terms in victory, +and not to wait the well-chosen hour of defeat, for making good by +weakness and by supplication a claim of prerogative, preëminence, and +authority.</p> + +<p>Instead of requiring it from me, as a point of duty, to kindle with your +passions, had you all been as cool as I was, you would have been saved +disgraces and distresses that are unutterable. Do you remember our +commission? We sent out a solemn embassy across the Atlantic Ocean, to +lay the crown, the peerage, the commons of Great Britain at the feet of +the<a name="Page_381" id="Page_381" title="381" class="pagenum"></a> American Congress. That our disgrace might want no sort of +brightening and burnishing, observe who they were that composed this +famous embassy. My Lord Carlisle is among the first ranks of our +nobility. He is the identical man who, but two years before, had been +put forward, at the opening of a session, in the House of Lords, as the +mover of an haughty and rigorous address against America. He was put in +the front of the embassy of submission. Mr. Eden was taken from the +office of Lord Suffolk, to whom he was then Under-Secretary of +State,—from the office of that Lord Suffolk who but a few weeks before, +in his place in Parliament, did not deign to inquire where a congress of +vagrants was to be found. This Lord Suffolk sent Mr. Eden to find these +vagrants, without knowing where his king's generals were to be found who +were joined in the same commission of supplicating those whom they were +sent to subdue. They enter the capital of America only to abandon it; +and these assertors and representatives of the dignity of England, at +the tail of a flying army, let fly their Parthian shafts of memorials +and remonstrances at random behind them. Their promises and their +offers, their flatteries and their menaces, were all despised; and we +were saved the disgrace of their formal reception only because the +Congress scorned to receive them; whilst the State-house of independent +Philadelphia opened her doors to the public entry of the ambassador of +France. From war and blood we went to submission, and from submission +plunged back again to war and blood, to desolate and be desolated, +without measure, hope, or end. I am a Royalist: I blushed for this +degradation of the crown. I am a Whig: I blushed for the dishonor of +Parliament. I <a name="Page_382" id="Page_382" title="382" class="pagenum"></a>am a true Englishman: I felt to the quick for the +disgrace of England. I am a man: I felt for the melancholy reverse of +human affairs in the fall of the first power in the world.</p> + +<p>To read what was approaching in Ireland, in the black and bloody +characters of the American war, was a painful, but it was a necessary +part of my public duty. For, Gentlemen, it is not your fond desires or +mine that can alter the nature of things; by contending against which, +what have we got, or shall ever get, but defeat and shame? I did not +obey your instructions. No. I conformed to the instructions of truth and +Nature, and maintained your interest, against your opinions, with a +constancy that became me. A representative worthy of you ought to be a +person of stability. I am to look, indeed, to your opinions,—but to +such opinions as you and I <i>must</i> have five years hence. I was not to +look to the flash of the day. I knew that you chose me, in my place, +along with others, to be a pillar of the state, and not a weathercock on +the top of the edifice, exalted for my levity and versatility, and of no +use but to indicate the shiftings of every fashionable gale. Would to +God the value of my sentiments on Ireland and on America had been at +this day a subject of doubt and discussion! No matter what my sufferings +had been, so that this kingdom had kept the authority I wished it to +maintain, by a grave foresight, and by an equitable temperance in the +use of its power.</p> + +<p>The next article of charge on my public conduct, and that which I find +rather the most prevalent of all, is Lord Beauchamp's bill: I mean his +bill of last session, for reforming the law-process concerning +imprisonment. It is said, to aggravate the offence, that<a name="Page_383" id="Page_383" title="383" class="pagenum"></a> I treated the +petition of this city with contempt even in presenting it to the House, +and expressed myself in terms of marked disrespect. Had this latter part +of the charge been true, no merits on the side of the question which I +took could possibly excuse me. But I am incapable of treating this city +with disrespect. Very fortunately, at this minute, (if my bad eyesight +does not deceive me,) the worthy gentleman<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49" /> +<a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor" title="Mr. Williams.">[49]</a> deputed on this business +stands directly before me. To him I appeal, whether I did not, though it +militated with my oldest and my most recent public opinions, deliver the +petition with a strong and more than usual recommendation to the +consideration of the House, on account of the character and consequence +of those who signed it. I believe the worthy gentleman will tell you, +that, the very day I received it, I applied to the Solicitor, now the +Attorney General, to give it an immediate consideration; and he most +obligingly and instantly consented to employ a great deal of his very +valuable time to write an explanation of the bill. I attended the +committee with all possible care and diligence, in order that every +objection of yours might meet with a solution, or produce an alteration. +I entreated your learned recorder (always ready in business in which you +take a concern) to attend. But what will you say to those who blame me +for supporting Lord Beauchamp's bill, as a disrespectful treatment of +your petition, when you hear, that, out of respect to you, I myself was +the cause of the loss of that very bill? For the noble lord who brought +it in, and who, I must say, has much merit for this and some other +measures, at my request consented to put it off for a week, which the +Speaker's illness lengthened <a name="Page_384" id="Page_384" title="384" class="pagenum"></a>to a fortnight; and then the frantic +tumult about Popery drove that and every rational business from the +House. So that, if I chose to make a defence of myself, on the little +principles of a culprit, pleading in his exculpation, I might not only +secure my acquittal, but make merit with the opposers of the bill. But I +shall do no such thing. The truth is, that I did occasion the loss of +the bill, and by a delay caused by my respect to you. But such an event +was never in my contemplation. And I am so far from taking credit for +the defeat of that measure, that I cannot sufficiently lament my +misfortune, if but one man, who ought to be at large, has passed a year +in prison by my means. I am a debtor to the debtors. I confess judgment. +I owe what, if ever it be in my power, I shall most certainly +pay,—ample atonement and usurious amends to liberty and humanity for my +unhappy lapse. For, Gentlemen, Lord Beauchamp's bill was a law of +justice and policy, as far as it went: I say, as far as it went; for its +fault was its being in the remedial part miserably defective.</p> + +<p>There are two capital faults in our law with relation to civil debts. +One is, that every man is presumed solvent: a presumption, in +innumerable cases, directly against truth. Therefore the debtor is +ordered, on a supposition of ability and fraud, to be coerced his +liberty until he makes payment. By this means, in all cases of civil +insolvency, without a pardon from his creditor, he is to be imprisoned +for life; and thus a miserable mistaken invention of artificial science +operates to change a civil into a criminal judgment, and to scourge +misfortune or indiscretion with a punishment which the law does not +inflict on the greatest crimes.<a name="Page_385" id="Page_385" title="385" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>The next fault is, that the inflicting of that punishment is not on the +opinion of an equal and public judge, but is referred to the arbitrary +discretion of a private, nay, interested, and irritated, individual. He, +who formally is, and substantially ought to be, the judge, is in reality +no more than ministerial, a mere executive instrument of a private man, +who is at once judge and party. Every idea of judicial order is +subverted by this procedure. If the insolvency be no crime, why is it +punished with arbitrary imprisonment? If it be a crime, why is it +delivered into private hands to pardon without discretion, or to punish +without mercy and without measure?</p> + +<p>To these faults, gross and cruel faults in our law, the excellent +principle of Lord Beauchamp's bill applied some sort of remedy. I know +that credit must be preserved: but equity must be preserved, too; and it +is impossible that anything should be necessary to commerce which is +inconsistent with justice. The principle of credit was not weakened by +that bill. God forbid! The enforcement of that credit was only put into +the same public judicial hands on which we depend for our lives and all +that makes life dear to us. But, indeed, this business was taken up too +warmly, both here and elsewhere. The bill was extremely mistaken. It was +supposed to enact what it never enacted; and complaints were made of +clauses in it, as novelties, which existed before the noble lord that +brought in the bill was born. There was a fallacy that ran through the +whole of the objections. The gentlemen who opposed the bill always +argued as if the option lay between that bill and the ancient law. But +this is a grand mistake. For, practically, the option is between not +that bill and the old law, but <a name="Page_386" id="Page_386" title="386" class="pagenum"></a>between that bill and those occasional +laws called acts of grace. For the operation of the old law is so +savage, and so inconvenient to society, that for a long time past, once +in every Parliament, and lately twice, the legislature has been obliged +to make a general arbitrary jail-delivery, and at once to set open, by +its sovereign authority, all the prisons in England.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, I never relished acts of grace, nor ever submitted to them +but from despair of better. They are a dishonorable invention, by which, +not from humanity, not from policy, but merely because we have not room +enough to hold these victims of the absurdity of our laws, we turn loose +upon the public three or four thousand naked wretches, corrupted by the +habits, debased by the ignominy of a prison. If the creditor had a right +to those carcasses as a natural security for his property, I am sure we +have no right to deprive him of that security. But if the few pounds of +flesh were not necessary to his security, we had not a right to detain +the unfortunate debtor, without any benefit at all to the person who +confined him. Take it as you will, we commit injustice. Now Lord +Beauchamp's bill intended to do deliberately, and with great caution and +circumspection, upon each several case, and with all attention to the +just claimant, what acts of grace do in a much greater measure, and with +very little care, caution, or deliberation.</p> + +<p>I suspect that here, too, if we contrive to oppose this bill, we shall +be found in a struggle against the nature of things. For, as we grow +enlightened, the public will not bear, for any length of time, to pay +for the maintenance of whole armies of prisoners, nor, at their own +expense, submit to keep jails as a <a name="Page_387" id="Page_387" title="387" class="pagenum"></a>sort of garrisons, merely to fortify +the absurd principle of making men judges in their own cause. For credit +has little or no concern in this cruelty. I speak in a commercial +assembly. You know that credit is given because capital <i>must</i> be +employed; that men calculate the chances of insolvency; and they either +withhold the credit, or make the debtor pay the risk in the price. The +counting-house has no alliance with the jail. Holland understands trade +as well as we, and she has done much more than this obnoxious bill +intended to do. There was not, when Mr. Howard visited Holland, more +than one prisoner for debt in the great city of Rotterdam. Although Lord +Beauchamp's act (which was previous to this bill, and intended to feel +the way for it) has already preserved liberty to thousands, and though +it is not three years since the last act of grace passed, yet, by Mr. +Howard's last account, there were near three thousand again in jail. I +cannot name this gentleman without remarking that his labors and +writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He has +visited all Europe,—not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces or the +stateliness of temples, not to make accurate measurements of the remains +of ancient grandeur nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art, +not to collect medals or collate manuscripts,—but to dive into the +depths of dungeons, to plunge into the infection of hospitals, to survey +the mansions of sorrow and pain, to take the gauge and dimensions of +misery, depression, and contempt, to remember the forgotten, to attend +to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the +distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original; and it is +as full of genius as it <a name="Page_388" id="Page_388" title="388" class="pagenum"></a>is of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery, a +circumnavigation of charity. Already the benefit of his labor is felt +more or less in every country; I hope he will anticipate his final +reward by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own. He will +receive, not by retail, but in gross, the reward of those who visit the +prisoner; and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of +charity, that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such acts +of benevolence hereafter.</p> + +<p>Nothing now remains to trouble you with but the fourth charge against +me,—the business of the Roman Catholics. It is a business closely +connected with the rest. They are all on one and the same principle. My +little scheme of conduct, such as it is, is all arranged. I could do +nothing but what I have done on this subject, without confounding the +whole train of my ideas and disturbing the whole order of my life. +Gentlemen, I ought to apologize to you for seeming to think anything at +all necessary to be said upon this matter. The calumny is fitter to be +scrawled with the midnight chalk of incendiaries, with "No Popery," on +walls and doors of devoted houses, than to be mentioned in any civilized +company. I had heard that the spirit of discontent on that subject was +very prevalent here. With pleasure I find that I have been grossly +misinformed. If it exists at all in this city, the laws have crushed its +exertions, and our morals have shamed its appearance in daylight. I have +pursued this spirit wherever I could trace it; but it still fled from +me. It was a ghost which all had heard of, but none had seen. None would +acknowledge that he thought the public proceeding with regard to our +Catholic dis<a name="Page_389" id="Page_389" title="389" class="pagenum"></a>senters to be blamable; but several were sorry it had made +an ill impression upon others, and that my interest was hurt by my share +in the business. I find with satisfaction and pride, that not above four +or five in this city (and I dare say these misled by some gross +misrepresentation) have signed that symbol of delusion and bond of +sedition, that libel on the national religion and English character, the +Protestant Association. It is, therefore, Gentlemen, not by way of cure, +but of prevention, and lest the arts of wicked men may prevail over the +integrity of any one amongst us, that I think it necessary to open to +you the merits of this transaction pretty much at large; and I beg your +patience upon it: for, although the reasonings that have been used to +depreciate the act are of little force, and though the authority of the +men concerned in this ill design is not very imposing, yet the +audaciousness of these conspirators against the national honor, and the +extensive wickedness of their attempts, have raised persons of little +importance to a degree of evil eminence, and imparted a sort of sinister +dignity to proceedings that had their origin in only the meanest and +blindest malice.</p> + +<p>In explaining to you the proceedings of Parliament which have been +complained of, I will state to you,—first, the thing that was +done,—next, the persons who did it,—and lastly, the grounds and +reasons upon which the legislature proceeded in this deliberate act of +public justice and public prudence.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, the condition of our nature is such that we buy our blessings +at a price. The Reformation, one of the greatest periods of human +improvement, was a time of trouble and confusion. The vast <a name="Page_390" id="Page_390" title="390" class="pagenum"></a>structure of +superstition and tyranny which had been for ages in rearing, and which +was combined with the interest of the great and of the many, which was +moulded into the laws, the manners, and civil institutions of nations, +and blended with the frame and policy of states, could not be brought to +the ground without a fearful struggle; nor could it fall without a +violent concussion of itself and all about it. When this great +revolution was attempted in a more regular mode by government, it was +opposed by plots and seditions of the people; when by popular efforts, +it was repressed as rebellion by the hand of power; and bloody +executions (often bloodily returned) marked the whole of its progress +through all its stages. The affairs of religion, which are no longer +heard of in the tumult of our present contentions, made a principal +ingredient in the wars and politics of that time: the enthusiasm of +religion threw a gloom over the politics; and political interests +poisoned and perverted the spirit of religion upon all sides. The +Protestant religion, in that violent struggle, infected, as the Popish +had been before, by worldly interests and worldly passions, became a +persecutor in its turn, sometimes of the new sects, which carried their +own principles further than it was convenient to the original reformers, +and always of the body from whom they parted: and this persecuting +spirit arose, not only from the bitterness of retaliation, but from the +merciless policy of fear.</p> + +<p>It was long before the spirit of true piety and true wisdom, involved in +the principles of the Reformation, could be depurated from the dregs and +feculence of the contention with which it was carried through. However, +until this be done, the Reformation is not complete: and those who think +themselves good<a name="Page_391" id="Page_391" title="391" class="pagenum"></a> Protestants, from their animosity to others, are in +that respect no Protestants at all. It was at first thought necessary, +perhaps, to oppose to Popery another Popery, to get the better of it. +Whatever was the cause, laws were made in many countries, and in this +kingdom in particular, against Papists, which are as bloody as any of +those which had been enacted by the Popish princes and states: and where +those laws were not bloody, in my opinion, they were worse; as they were +slow, cruel outrages on our nature, and kept men alive only to insult in +their persons every one of the rights and feelings of humanity. I pass +those statutes, because I would spare your pious ears the repetition of +such shocking things; and I come to that particular law the repeal of +which has produced so many unnatural and unexpected consequences.</p> + +<p>A statute was fabricated in the year 1699, by which the saying mass (a +church service in the Latin tongue, not exactly the same as our liturgy, +but very near it, and containing no offence whatsoever against the laws, +or against good morals) was forged into a crime, punishable with +perpetual imprisonment. The teaching school, an useful and virtuous +occupation, even the teaching in a private family, was in every Catholic +subjected to the same unproportioned punishment. Your industry, and the +bread of your children, was taxed for a pecuniary reward to stimulate +avarice to do what Nature refused, to inform and prosecute on this law. +Every Roman Catholic was, under the same act, to forfeit his estate to +his nearest Protestant relation, until, through a profession of what he +did not believe, he redeemed by his hypocrisy what the law had +transferred to the kinsman as the recom<a name="Page_392" id="Page_392" title="392" class="pagenum"></a>pense of his profligacy. When +thus turned out of doors from his paternal estate, he was disabled from +acquiring any other by any industry, donation, or charity; but was +rendered a foreigner in his native land, only because he retained the +religion, along with the property, handed down to him from those who had +been the old inhabitants of that land before him.</p> + +<p>Does any one who hears me approve this scheme of things, or think there +is common justice, common sense, or common honesty in any part of it? If +any does, let him say it, and I am ready to discuss the point with +temper and candor. But instead of approving, I perceive a virtuous +indignation beginning to rise in your minds on the mere cold stating of +the statute.</p> + +<p>But what will you feel, when you know from history how this statute +passed, and what were the motives, and what the mode of making it? A +party in this nation, enemies to the system of the Revolution, were in +opposition to the government of King William. They knew that our +glorious deliverer was an enemy to all persecution. They knew that he +came to free us from slavery and Popery, out of a country where a third +of the people are contented Catholics under a Protestant government. He +came with a part of his army composed of those very Catholics, to +overset the power of a Popish prince. Such is the effect of a tolerating +spirit; and so much is liberty served in every way, and by all persons, +by a manly adherence to its own principles. Whilst freedom is true to +itself, everything becomes subject to it, and its very adversaries are +an instrument in its hands.</p> + +<p>The party I speak of (like some amongst us who <a name="Page_393" id="Page_393" title="393" class="pagenum"></a>would disparage the best +friends of their country) resolved to make the king either violate his +principles of toleration or incur the odium of protecting Papists. They +therefore brought in this bill, and made it purposely wicked and absurd +that it might be rejected. The then court party, discovering their game, +turned the tables on them, and returned their bill to them stuffed with +still greater absurdities, that its loss might lie upon its original +authors. They, finding their own ball thrown back to them, kicked it +back again to their adversaries. And thus this act, loaded with the +double injustice of two parties, neither of whom intended to pass what +they hoped the other would be persuaded to reject, went through the +legislature, contrary to the real wish of all parts of it, and of all +the parties that composed it. In this manner these insolent and +profligate factions, as if they were playing with balls and counters, +made a sport of the fortunes and the liberties of their +fellow-creatures. Other acts of persecution have been acts of malice. +This was a subversion of justice from wantonness and petulance. Look +into the history of Bishop Burnet. He is a witness without exception.</p> + +<p>The effects of the act have been as mischievous as its origin was +ludicrous and shameful. From that time, every person of that communion, +lay and ecclesiastic, has been obliged to fly from the face of day. The +clergy, concealed in garrets of private houses, or obliged to take a +shelter (hardly safe to themselves, but infinitely dangerous to their +country) under the privileges of foreign ministers, officiated as their +servants and under their protection. The whole body of the Catholics, +condemned to beggary and to ignorance in their native land, have been +obliged to learn <a name="Page_394" id="Page_394" title="394" class="pagenum"></a>the principles of letters, at the hazard of all their +other principles, from the charity of your enemies. They have been taxed +to their ruin at the pleasure of necessitous and profligate relations, +and according to the measure of their necessity and profligacy. Examples +of this are many and affecting. Some of them are known by a friend who +stands near me in this hall. It is but six or seven years since a +clergyman, of the name of Malony, a man of morals, neither guilty nor +accused of anything noxious to the state, was condemned to perpetual +imprisonment for exercising the functions of his religion; and after +lying in jail two or three years, was relieved by the mercy of +government from perpetual imprisonment, on condition of perpetual +banishment. A brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury, a Talbot, a name +respectable in this country whilst its glory is any part of its concern, +was hauled to the bar of the Old Bailey, among common felons, and only +escaped the same doom, either by some error in the process, or that the +wretch who brought him there could not correctly describe his person,—I +now forget which. In short, the persecution would never have relented +for a moment, if the judges, superseding (though with an ambiguous +example) the strict rule of their artificial duty by the higher +obligation of their conscience, did not constantly throw every +difficulty in the way of such informers. But so ineffectual is the power +of legal evasion against legal iniquity, that it was but the other day +that a lady of condition, beyond the middle of life, was on the point of +being stripped of her whole fortune by a near relation to whom she had +been a friend and benefactor; and she must have been totally ruined, +without a power of redress or mitigation from the <a name="Page_395" id="Page_395" title="395" class="pagenum"></a>courts of law, had +not the legislature itself rushed in, and by a special act of Parliament +rescued her from the injustice of its own statutes. One of the acts +authorizing such things was that which we in part repealed, knowing what +our duty was, and doing that duty as men of honor and virtue, as good +Protestants, and as good citizens. Let him stand forth that disapproves +what we have done!</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. In such a country as +this they are of all bad things the worst,—worse by far than anywhere +else; and they derive a particular malignity even from the wisdom and +soundness of the rest of our institutions. For very obvious reasons you +cannot trust the crown with a dispensing power over any of your laws. +However, a government, be it as bad as it may, will, in the exercise of +a discretionary power, discriminate times and persons, and will not +ordinarily pursue any man, when its own safety is not concerned. A +mercenary informer knows no distinction. Under such a system, the +obnoxious people are slaves not only to the government, but they live at +the mercy of every individual; they are at once the slaves of the whole +community and of every part of it; and the worst and most unmerciful men +are those on whose goodness they most depend.</p> + +<p>In this situation, men not only shrink from the frowns of a stern +magistrate, but they are obliged to fly from their very species. The +seeds of destruction are sown in civil intercourse, in social habitudes. +The blood of wholesome kindred is infected. Their tables and beds are +surrounded with snares. All the means given by Providence to make life +safe and comfortable are perverted into instruments of terror <a name="Page_396" id="Page_396" title="396" class="pagenum"></a>and +torment. This species of universal subserviency, that makes the very +servant who waits behind your chair the arbiter of your life and +fortune, has such a tendency to degrade and abase mankind, and to +deprive them of that assured and liberal state of mind which alone can +make us what we ought to be, that I vow to God I would sooner bring +myself to put a man to immediate death for opinions I disliked, and so +to get rid of the man and his opinions at once, than to fret him with a +feverish being, tainted with the jail-distemper of a contagious +servitude, to keep him above ground an animated mass of putrefaction, +corrupted himself, and corrupting all about him.</p> + +<p>The act repealed was of this direct tendency; and it was made in the +manner which I have related to you. I will now tell you by whom the bill +of repeal was brought into Parliament. I find it has been industriously +given out in this city (from kindness to me, unquestionably) that I was +the mover or the seconder. The fact is, I did not once open my lips on +the subject during the whole progress of the bill. I do not say this as +disclaiming my share in that measure. Very far from it. I inform you of +this fact, lest I should seem to arrogate to myself the merits which +belong to others. To have been the man chosen out to redeem our +fellow-citizens from slavery, to purify our laws from absurdity and +injustice, and to cleanse our religion from the blot and stain of +persecution, would be an honor and happiness to which my wishes would +undoubtedly aspire, but to which nothing but my wishes could possibly +have entitled me. That great work was in hands in every respect far +better qualified than mine. The mover of the bill was Sir George +Savile.<a name="Page_397" id="Page_397" title="397" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>When an act of great and signal humanity was to be done, and done with +all the weight and authority that belonged to it, the world could cast +its eyes upon none but him. I hope that few things which have a tendency +to bless or to adorn life have wholly escaped my observation in my +passage through it. I have sought the acquaintance of that gentleman, +and have seen him in all situations. He is a true genius; with an +understanding vigorous, and acute, and refined, and distinguishing even +to excess; and illuminated with a most unbounded, peculiar, and original +cast of imagination. With these he possesses many external and +instrumental advantages; and he makes use of them all. His fortune is +among the largest,—a fortune which, wholly unincumbered as it is with +one single charge from luxury, vanity, or excess, sinks under the +benevolence of its dispenser. This private benevolence, expanding itself +into patriotism, renders his whole being the estate of the public, in +which he has not reserved a <i>peculium</i> for himself of profit, diversion, +or relaxation. During the session the first in and the last out of the +House of Commons, he passes from the senate to the camp; and seldom +seeing the seat of his ancestors, he is always in Parliament to serve +his country or in the field to defend it. But in all well-wrought +compositions some particulars stand out more eminently than the rest; +and the things which will carry his name to posterity are his two bills: +I mean that for a limitation of the claims of the crown upon landed +estates, and this for the relief of the Roman Catholics. By the former +he has emancipated property; by the latter he has quieted conscience; +and by both he has taught that grand lesson to government and +subject,—no longer to regard each other as adverse parties.<a name="Page_398" id="Page_398" title="398" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Such was the mover of the act that is complained of by men who are not +quite so good as he is,—an act most assuredly not brought in by him +from any partiality to that sect which is the object of it. For among +his faults I really cannot help reckoning a greater degree of prejudice +against that people than becomes so wise a man. I know that he inclines +to a sort of disgust, mixed with a considerable degree of asperity, to +the system; and he has few, or rather no habits with any of its +professors. What he has done was on quite other motives. The motives +were these, which he declared in his excellent speech on his motion for +the bill: namely, his extreme zeal to the Protestant religion, which he +thought utterly disgraced by the act of 1699; and his rooted hatred to +all kind of oppression, under any color, or upon any pretence +whatsoever.</p> + +<p>The seconder was worthy of the mover and the motion. I was not the +seconder; it was Mr. Dunning, recorder of this city. I shall say the +less of him because his near relation to you makes you more particularly +acquainted with his merits. But I should appear little acquainted with +them, or little sensible of them, if I could utter his name on this +occasion without expressing my esteem for his character. I am not afraid +of offending a most learned body, and most jealous of its reputation for +that learning, when I say he is the first of his profession. It is a +point settled by those who settle everything else; and I must add (what +I am enabled to say from my own long and close observation) that there +is not a man, of any profession, or in any situation, of a more erect +and independent spirit, of a more proud honor, a more manly mind, a more +firm <a name="Page_399" id="Page_399" title="399" class="pagenum"></a>and determined integrity. Assure yourselves, that the names of two +such men will bear a great load of prejudice in the other scale before +they can be entirely outweighed.</p> + +<p>With this mover and this seconder agreed the <i>whole</i> House of Commons, +the <i>whole</i> House of Lords, the <i>whole</i> Bench of Bishops, the king, the +ministry, the opposition, all the distinguished clergy of the +Establishment, all the eminent lights (for they were consulted) of the +dissenting churches. This according voice of national wisdom ought to be +listened to with reverence. To say that all these descriptions of +Englishmen unanimously concurred in a scheme for introducing the +Catholic religion, or that none of them understood the nature and +effects of what they were doing so well as a few obscure clubs of people +whose names you never heard of, is shamelessly absurd. Surely it is +paying a miserable compliment to the religion we profess, to suggest +that everything eminent in the kingdom is indifferent or even adverse to +that religion, and that its security is wholly abandoned to the zeal of +those who have nothing but their zeal to distinguish them. In weighing +this unanimous concurrence of whatever the nation has to boast of, I +hope you will recollect that all these concurring parties do by no means +love one another enough to agree in any point which was not both +evidently and importantly right.</p> + +<p>To prove this, to prove that the measure was both clearly and materially +proper, I will next lay before you (as I promised) the political grounds +and reasons for the repeal of that penal statute, and the motives to its +repeal at that particular time.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, America—When the English nation <a name="Page_400" id="Page_400" title="400" class="pagenum"></a>seemed to be dangerously, +if not irrecoverably divided,—when one, and that the most growing +branch, was torn from the parent stock, and ingrafted on the power of +France, a great terror fell upon this kingdom. On a sudden we awakened +from our dreams of conquest, and saw ourselves threatened with an +immediate invasion, which we were at that time very ill prepared to +resist. You remember the cloud that gloomed over us all. In that hour of +our dismay, from the bottom of the hiding-places into which the +indiscriminate rigor of our statutes had driven them, came out the body +of the Roman Catholics. They appeared before the steps of a tottering +throne, with one of the most sober, measured, steady, and dutiful +addresses that was ever presented to the crown. It was no holiday +ceremony, no anniversary compliment of parade and show. It was signed by +almost every gentleman of that persuasion, of note or property, in +England. At such a crisis, nothing but a decided resolution to stand or +fall with their country could have dictated such an address, the direct +tendency of which was to cut off all retreat, and to render them +peculiarly obnoxious to an invader of their own communion. The address +showed what I long languished to see, that all the subjects of England +had cast off all foreign views and connections, and that every man +looked for his relief from every grievance at the hands only of his own +natural government.</p> + +<p>It was necessary, on our part, that the natural government should show +itself worthy of that name. It was necessary, at the crisis I speak of, +that the supreme power of the state should meet the conciliatory +dispositions of the subject. To delay protection would be to reject +allegiance. And why should it <a name="Page_401" id="Page_401" title="401" class="pagenum"></a>be rejected, or even coldly and +suspiciously received? If any independent Catholic state should choose +to take part with this kingdom in a war with France and Spain, that +bigot (if such a bigot could be found) would be heard with little +respect, who could dream of objecting his religion to an ally whom the +nation would not only receive with its freest thanks, but purchase with +the last remains of its exhausted treasure. To such an ally we should +not dare to whisper a single syllable of those base and invidious topics +upon which some unhappy men would persuade the state to reject the duty +and allegiance of its own members. Is it, then, because foreigners are +in a condition to set our malice at defiance, that with <i>them</i> we are +willing to contract engagements of friendship, and to keep them with +fidelity and honor, but that, because we conceive some descriptions of +our countrymen are not powerful enough to punish our malignity, we will +not permit them to support our common interest? Is it on that ground +that our anger is to be kindled by their offered kindness? Is it on that +ground that they are to be subjected to penalties, because they are +willing by actual merit to purge themselves from imputed crimes? Lest by +an adherence to the cause of their country they should acquire a title +to fair and equitable treatment, are we resolved to furnish them with +causes of eternal enmity, and rather supply them with just and founded +motives to disaffection than not to have that disaffection in existence +to justify an oppression which, not from policy, but disposition, we +have predetermined to exercise?</p> + +<p>What shadow of reason could be assigned, why, at a time when the most +Protestant part of this Protestant empire found it for its advantage to +unite with <a name="Page_402" id="Page_402" title="402" class="pagenum"></a>the two principal Popish states, to unite itself in the +closest bonds with France and Spain, for our destruction, that we should +refuse to unite with our own Catholic countrymen for our own +preservation? Ought we, like madmen, to tear off the plasters that the +lenient hand of prudence had spread over the wounds and gashes which in +our delirium of ambition we had given to our own body? No person ever +reprobated the American war more than I did, and do, and ever shall. But +I never will consent that we should lay additional, voluntary penalties +on ourselves, for a fault which carries but too much of its own +punishment in its own nature. For one, I was delighted with the proposal +of internal peace. I accepted the blessing with thankfulness and +transport. I was truly happy to find <i>one</i> good effect of our civil +distractions: that they had put an end to all religious strife and +heart-burning in our own bowels. What must be the sentiments of a man +who would wish to perpetuate domestic hostility when the causes of +dispute are at an end, and who, crying out for peace with one part of +the nation on the most humiliating terms, should deny it to those who +offer friendship without any terms at all?</p> + +<p>But if I was unable to reconcile such a denial to the contracted +principles of local duty, what answer could I give to the broad claims +of general humanity? I confess to you freely, that the sufferings and +distresses of the people of America in this cruel war have at times +affected me more deeply than I can express. I felt every gazette of +triumph as a blow upon my heart, which has an hundred times sunk and +fainted within me at all the mischiefs brought upon those who bear the +whole brunt of war in the heart of their <a name="Page_403" id="Page_403" title="403" class="pagenum"></a>country. Yet the Americans are +utter strangers to me; a nation among whom I am not sure that I have a +single acquaintance. Was I to suffer my mind to be so unaccountably +warped, was I to keep such iniquitous weights and measures of temper and +of reason, as to sympathize with those who are in open rebellion against +an authority which I respect, at war with a country which by every title +ought to be, and is, most dear to me,—and yet to have no feeling at all +for the hardships and indignities suffered by men who by their very +vicinity are bound up in a nearer relation to us, who contribute their +share, and more than their share, to the common prosperity, who perform +the common offices of social life, and who obey the laws, to the full as +well as I do? Gentlemen, the danger to the state being out of the +question, (of which, let me tell you, statesmen themselves are apt to +have but too exquisite a sense,) I could assign no one reason of +justice, policy, or feeling, for not concurring most cordially, as most +cordially I did concur, in softening some part of that shameful +servitude under which several of my worthy fellow-citizens were +groaning.</p> + +<p>Important effects followed this act of wisdom. They appeared at home and +abroad, to the great benefit of this kingdom, and, let me hope, to the +advantage of mankind at large. It betokened union among ourselves. It +showed soundness, even on the part of the persecuted, which generally is +the weak side of every community. But its most essential operation was +not in England. The act was immediately, though very imperfectly, copied +in Ireland; and this imperfect transcript of an imperfect act, this +first faint sketch of toleration, which did little more than disclose a +<a name="Page_404" id="Page_404" title="404" class="pagenum"></a>principle and mark out a disposition, completed in a most wonderful +manner the reunion to the state of all the Catholics of that country. It +made us what we ought always to have been, one family, one body, one +heart and soul, against the family combination and all other +combinations of our enemies. We have, indeed, obligations to that +people, who received such small benefits with so much gratitude, and for +which gratitude and attachment to us I am afraid they have suffered not +a little in other places.</p> + +<p>I dare say you have all hoard of the privileges indulged to the Irish +Catholics residing in Spain. You have likewise heard with what +circumstances of severity they have been lately expelled from the +seaports of that kingdom, driven into the inland cities, and there +detained as a sort of prisoners of state. I have good reason to believe +that it was the zeal to our government and our cause (somewhat +indiscreetly expressed in one of the addresses of the Catholics of +Ireland) which has thus drawn down on their heads the indignation of the +court of Madrid, to the inexpressible loss of several individuals, and, +in future, perhaps to the great detriment of the whole of their body. +Now that our people should be persecuted in Spain for their attachment +to this country, and persecuted in this country for their supposed +enmity to us, is such a jarring reconciliation of contradictory +distresses, is a thing at once so dreadful and ridiculous, that no +malice short of diabolical would wish to continue any human creatures in +such a situation. But honest men will not forget either their merit or +their sufferings. There are men (and many, I trust, there are) who, out +of love to their country and their kind, would torture their invention +to find excuses <a name="Page_405" id="Page_405" title="405" class="pagenum"></a>for the mistakes of their brethren, and who, to stifle +dissension, would construe even doubtful appearances with the utmost +favor: such men will never persuade themselves to be ingenious and +refined in discovering disaffection and treason in the manifest, +palpable signs of suffering loyalty. Persecution is so unnatural to +them, that they gladly snatch the very first opportunity of laying aside +all the tricks and devices of penal politics, and of returning home, +after all their irksome and vexatious wanderings, to our natural family +mansion, to the grand social principle that unites all men, in all +descriptions, under the shadow of an equal and impartial justice.</p> + +<p>Men of another sort, I mean the bigoted enemies to liberty, may, +perhaps, in their politics, make no account of the good or ill affection +of the Catholics of England, who are but an handful of people, (enough +to torment, but not enough to fear,) perhaps not so many, of both sexes +and of all ages, as fifty thousand. But, Gentlemen, it is possible you +may not know that the people of that persuasion in Ireland amount at +least to sixteen or seventeen hundred thousand souls. I do not at all +exaggerate the number. A <i>nation</i> to be persecuted! Whilst we were +masters of the sea, embodied with America, and in alliance with half the +powers of the Continent, we might, perhaps, in that remote corner of +Europe, afford to tyrannize with impunity. But there is a revolution in +our affairs, which makes it prudent to be just. In our late awkward +contest with Ireland about trade, had religion been thrown in, to +ferment and embitter the mass of discontents, the consequences might +have been truly dreadful. But, very happily, that cause of quarrel was +previously quieted by the wisdom of the acts I am commending.<a name="Page_406" id="Page_406" title="406" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Even in England, where I admit the danger from the discontent of that +persuasion to be less than in Ireland, yet even here, had we listened to +the counsels of fanaticism and folly, we might have wounded ourselves +very deeply, and wounded ourselves in a very tender part. You are +apprised that the Catholics of England consist mostly of our best +manufacturers. Had the legislature chosen, instead of returning their +declarations of duty with correspondent good-will, to drive them to +despair, there is a country at their very door to which they would be +invited,—a country in all respects as good as ours, and with the finest +cities in the world ready built to receive them. And thus the bigotry of +a free country, and in an enlightened age, would have repeopled the +cities of Flanders, which, in the darkness of two hundred years ago, had +been desolated by the superstition of a cruel tyrant. Oar manufactures +were the growth of the persecutions in the Low Countries. What a +spectacle would it be to Europe, to see us at this time of day balancing +the account of tyranny with those very countries, and by our +persecutions driving back trade and manufacture, as a sort of vagabonds, +to their original settlement! But I trust we shall be saved this last of +disgraces.</p> + +<p>So far as to the effect of the act on the interests of this nation. With +regard to the interests of mankind at large, I am sure the benefit was +very considerable. Long before this act, indeed, the spirit of +toleration began to gain ground in Europe. In Holland the third part of +the people are Catholics; they live at ease, and are a sound part of the +state. In many parts of Germany, Protestants and Papists partake the +same cities, the same councils, and even the <a name="Page_407" id="Page_407" title="407" class="pagenum"></a>same churches. The +unbounded liberality of the king of Prussia's conduct on this occasion +is known to all the world; and it is of a piece with the other grand +maxims of his reign. The magnanimity of the Imperial court, breaking +through the narrow principles of its predecessors, has indulged its +Protestant subjects, not only with property, with worship, with liberal +education, but with honors and trusts, both civil and military. A worthy +Protestant gentleman of this country now fills, and fills with credit, +an high office in the Austrian Netherlands. Even the Lutheran obstinacy +of Sweden has thawed at length, and opened a toleration to all +religions. I know, myself, that in France the Protestants begin to be at +rest. The army, which in that country is everything, is open to them; +and some of the military rewards and decorations which the laws deny are +supplied by others, to make the service acceptable and honorable. The +first minister of finance in that country is a Protestant. Two years' +war without a tax is among the first fruits of their liberality. +Tarnished as the glory of this nation is, and far as it has waded into +the shades of an eclipse, some beams of its former illumination still +play upon its surface; and what is done in England is still looked to, +as argument, and as example. It is certainly true, that no law of this +country ever met with such universal applause abroad, or was so likely +to produce the perfection of that tolerating spirit which, as I +observed, has been long gaining ground in Europe: for abroad it was +universally thought that we had done what I am sorry to say we had not; +they thought we had granted a full toleration. That opinion was, +however, so far from hurting the Protestant cause, that I declare, with +the <a name="Page_408" id="Page_408" title="408" class="pagenum"></a>most serious solemnity, my firm belief that no one thing done for +these fifty years past was so likely to prove deeply beneficial to our +religion at large as Sir George Savile's act. In its effects it was "an +act for tolerating and protecting Protestantism throughout Europe"; and +I hope that those who were taking steps for the quiet and settlement of +our Protestant brethren in other countries will, even yet, rather +consider the steady equity of the greater and better part of the people +of Great Britain than the vanity and violence of a few.</p> + +<p>I perceive, Gentlemen, by the manner of all about me, that you look with +horror on the wicked clamor which has been raised on this subject, and +that, instead of an apology for what was done, you rather demand from me +an account, why the execution of the scheme of toleration was not made +more answerable to the large and liberal grounds on which it was taken +up. The question is natural and proper; and I remember that a great and +learned magistrate,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50" /><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor" +title="The Chancellor.">[50]</a> distinguished for his strong and systematic +understanding, and who at that time was a member of the House of +Commons, made the same objection to the proceeding. The statutes, as +they now stand, are, without doubt, perfectly absurd. But I beg leave to +explain the cause of this gross imperfection in the tolerating plan, as +well and as shortly as I am able. It was universally thought that the +session ought not to pass over without doing <i>something</i> in this +business. To revise the whole body of the penal statutes was conceived +to be an object too big for the time. The penal statute, therefore, +which was chosen for repeal (chosen to show our disposition to +conciliate, not to <a name="Page_409" id="Page_409" title="409" class="pagenum"></a>perfect a toleration) was this act of ludicrous +cruelty of which I have just given you the history. It is an act which, +though not by a great deal so fierce and bloody as some of the rest, was +infinitely more ready in the execution. It was the act which gave the +greatest encouragement to those pests of society, mercenary informers +and interested disturbers of household peace; and it was observed with +truth, that the prosecutions, either carried to conviction or +compounded, for many years, had been all commenced upon that act. It was +said, that, whilst we were deliberating on a more perfect scheme, the +spirit of the age would never come up to the execution of the statutes +which remained, especially as more steps, and a coöperation of more +minds and powers, were required towards a mischievous use of them, than +for the execution of the act to be repealed: that it was better to +unravel this texture from below than from above, beginning with the +latest, which, in general practice, is the severest evil. It was +alleged, that this slow proceeding would be attended with the advantage +of a progressive experience,—and that the people would grow reconciled +to toleration, when they should find, by the effects, that justice was +not so irreconcilable an enemy to convenience as they had imagined.</p> + +<p>These, Gentlemen, were the reasons why we left this good work in the +rude, unfinished state in which good works are commonly left, through +the tame circumspection with which a timid prudence so frequently +enervates beneficence. In doing good, we are generally cold, and +languid, and sluggish, and of all things afraid of being too much in the +right. But the works of malice and injustice are quite in another style. +They are finished with a bold, mas<a name="Page_410" id="Page_410" title="410" class="pagenum"></a>terly hand, touched as they are with +the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, +whenever we oppress and persecute.</p> + +<p>Thus this matter was left for the time, with a full determination in +Parliament not to suffer other and worse statutes to remain for the +purpose of counteracting the benefits proposed by the repeal of one +penal law: for nobody then dreamed of defending what was done as a +benefit, on the ground of its being no benefit at all. We were not then +ripe for so mean a subterfuge.</p> + +<p>I do not wish to go over the horrid scene that was afterwards acted. +Would to God it could be expunged forever from the annals of this +country! But since it must subsist for our shame, let it subsist for our +instruction. In the year 1780 there were found in this nation men +deluded enough, (for I give the whole to their delusion,) on pretences +of zeal and piety, without any sort of provocation whatsoever, real or +pretended, to make a desperate attempt, which would have consumed all +the glory and power of this country in the flames of London, and buried +all law, order, and religion under the ruins of the metropolis of the +Protestant world. Whether all this mischief done, or in the direct train +of doing, was in their original scheme, I cannot say; I hope it was not: +but this would have been the unavoidable consequence of their +proceedings, had not the flames they had lighted up in their fury been +extinguished in their blood.</p> + +<p>All the time that this horrid scene was acting, or avenging, as well as +for some time before, and ever since, the wicked instigators of this +unhappy multitude, guilty, with every aggravation, of all their <a name="Page_411" id="Page_411" title="411" class="pagenum"></a>crimes, +and screened in a cowardly darkness from their punishment, continued, +without interruption, pity, or remorse, to blow up the blind rage of the +populace with a continued blast of pestilential libels, which infected +and poisoned the very air we breathed in.</p> + +<p>The main drift of all the libels and all the riots was, to force +Parliament (to persuade us was hopeless) into an act of national perfidy +which has no example. For, Gentlemen, it is proper you should all know +what infamy we escaped by refusing that repeal, for a refusal of which, +it seems, I, among others, stand somewhere or other accused. When we +took away, on the motives which I had the honor of stating to you, a few +of the innumerable penalties upon an oppressed and injured people, the +relief was not absolute, but given on a stipulation and compact between +them and us: for we bound down the Roman Catholics with the most solemn +oaths to bear true allegiance to this government, to abjure all sort of +temporal power in any other, and to renounce, under the same solemn +obligations, the doctrines of systematic perfidy with which they stood +(I conceive very unjustly) charged. Now our modest petitioners came up +to us, most humbly praying nothing more than that we should break our +faith, without any one cause whatsoever of forfeiture assigned; and when +the subjects of this kingdom had, on their part, fully performed their +engagement, we should refuse, on our part, the benefit we had stipulated +on the performance of those very conditions that were prescribed by our +own authority, and taken on the sanction of our public faith: that is to +say, when we had inveigled them with fair promises <a name="Page_412" id="Page_412" title="412" class="pagenum"></a>within our door, we +were to shut it on them, and, adding mockery to outrage, to tell +them,—"Now we have got you fast: your consciences are bound to a power +resolved on your destruction. We have made you swear that your religion +obliges you to keep your faith: fools as you are! we will now let you +see that our religion enjoins us to keep no faith with you." They who +would advisedly call upon us to do such things must certainly have +thought us not only a convention of treacherous tyrants, but a gang of +the lowest and dirtiest wretches that ever disgraced humanity. Had we +done this, we should have indeed proved that there were <i>some</i> in the +world whom no faith could bind; and we should have <i>convicted</i> ourselves +of that odious principle of which Papists stood <i>accused</i> by those very +savages who wished us, on that accusation, to deliver them over to their +fury.</p> + +<p>In this audacious tumult, when our very name and character as gentlemen +was to be cancelled forever, along with the faith and honor of the +nation, I, who had exerted myself very little on the quiet passing of +the bill, thought it necessary then to come forward. I was not alone; +but though some distinguished members on all sides, and particularly on +ours, added much to their high reputation by the part they took on that +day, (a part which will be remembered as long as honor, spirit, and +eloquence have estimation in the world,) I may and will value myself so +far, that, yielding in abilities to many, I yielded in zeal to none. +With warmth and with vigor, and animated with a just and natural +indignation, I called forth every faculty that I possessed, and I +directed it in every way in which I could possibly employ it. I labored +night <a name="Page_413" id="Page_413" title="413" class="pagenum"></a>and day. I labored in Parliament; I labored out of Parliament. +If, therefore, the resolution of the House of Commons, refusing to +commit this act of unmatched turpitude, be a crime, I am guilty among +the foremost. But, indeed, whatever the faults of that House may have +been, no one member was found hardy enough to propose so infamous a +thing; and on full debate we passed the resolution against the petitions +with as much unanimity as we had formerly passed the law of which these +petitions demanded the repeal.</p> + +<p>There was a circumstance (justice will not suffer me to pass it over) +which, if anything could enforce the reasons I have given, would fully +justify the act of relief, and render a repeal, or anything like a +repeal, unnatural, impossible. It was the behavior of the persecuted +Roman Catholics under the acts of violence and brutal insolence which +they suffered. I suppose there are not in London less than four or five +thousand of that persuasion from my country, who do a great deal of the +most laborious works in the metropolis; and they chiefly inhabit those +quarters which were the principal theatre of the fury of the bigoted +multitude. They are known to be men of strong arms and quick feelings, +and more remarkable for a determined resolution than clear ideas or much +foresight. But, though provoked by everything that can stir the blood of +men, their houses and chapels in flames, and with the most atrocious +profanations of everything which they hold sacred before their eyes, not +a hand was moved to retaliate, or even to defend. Had a conflict once +begun, the rage of their persecutors would have redoubled. Thus fury +increasing by the reverberation of outrages, house being fired for +house, and church for chapel, I am <a name="Page_414" id="Page_414" title="414" class="pagenum"></a>convinced that no power under heaven +could have prevented a general conflagration, and at this day London +would have been a tale. But I am well informed, and the thing speaks it, +that their clergy exerted their whole influence to keep their people in +such a state of forbearance and quiet, as, when I look back, fills me +with astonishment,—but not with astonishment only. Their merits on that +occasion ought not to be forgotten; nor will they, when Englishmen come +to recollect themselves. I am sure it were far more proper to have +called them forth, and given them the thanks of both Houses of +Parliament, than to have suffered those worthy clergymen and excellent +citizens to be hunted into holes and corners, whilst we are making +low-minded inquisitions into the number of their people; as if a +tolerating principle was never to prevail, unless we were very sure that +only a few could possibly take advantage of it. But, indeed, we are not +yet well recovered of our fright. Our reason, I trust, will return with +our security, and this unfortunate temper will pass over like a cloud.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, I have now laid before you a few of the reasons for taking +away the penalties of the act of 1699, and for refusing to establish +them on the riotous requisition of 1780. Because I would not suffer +anything which may be for your satisfaction to escape, permit me just to +touch on the objections urged against our act and our resolves, and +intended as a justification of the violence offered to both Houses. +"Parliament," they assert, "was too hasty, and they ought, in so +essential and alarming a change, to have proceeded with a far greater +degree of deliberation." The direct contrary. Parliament was too slow. +They took fourscore years to deliberate on the repeal of an <a name="Page_415" id="Page_415" title="415" class="pagenum"></a>act which +ought not to have survived a second session. When at length, after a +procrastination of near a century, the business was taken up, it +proceeded in the most public manner, by the ordinary stages, and as +slowly as a law so evidently right as to be resisted by none would +naturally advance. Had it been read three times in one day, we should +have shown only a becoming readiness to recognize, by protection, the +undoubted dutiful behavior of those whom we had but too long punished +for offences of presumption or conjecture. But for what end was that +bill to linger beyond the usual period of an unopposed measure? Was it +to be delayed until a rabble in Edinburgh should dictate to the Church +of England what measure of persecution was fitting for her safety? Was +it to be adjourned until a fanatical force could be collected in London, +sufficient to frighten us out of all our ideas of policy and justice? +Were we to wait for the profound lectures on the reason of state, +ecclesiastical and political, which the Protestant Association have +since condescended to read to us? Or were we, seven hundred peers and +commoners, the only persons ignorant of the ribald invectives which +occupy the place of argument in those remonstrances, which every man of +common observation had heard a thousand times over, and a thousand times +over had despised? All men had before heard what they dare to say, and +all men at this day know what they dare to do; and I trust all honest +men are equally influenced by the one and by the other.</p> + +<p>But they tell us, that those our fellow-citizens whose chains we have a +little relaxed are enemies to liberty and our free Constitution.—Not +enemies, I presume, to their <i>own</i> liberty. And as to the<a name="Page_416" id="Page_416" title="416" class="pagenum"></a> Constitution, +until we give them some share in it, I do not know on what pretence we +can examine into their opinions about a business in which they have no +interest or concern. But, after all, are we equally sure that they are +adverse to our Constitution as that our statutes are hostile and +destructive to them? For my part, I have reason to believe their +opinions and inclinations in that respect are various, exactly like +those of other men; and if they lean more to the crown than I and than +many of you think <i>we</i> ought, we must remember that he who aims at +another's life is not to be surprised, if he flies into any sanctuary +that will receive him. The tenderness of the executive power is the +natural asylum of those upon whom the laws have declared war; and to +complain that men are inclined to favor the means of their own safety is +so absurd, that one forgets the injustice in the ridicule.</p> + +<p>I must fairly tell you, that so far as my principles are concerned, +(principles that I hope will only depart with my last breath,) that I +have no idea of a liberty unconnected with honesty and justice. Nor do I +believe that any good constitutions of government, or of freedom, can +find it necessary for their security to doom any part of the people to a +permanent slavery. Such a constitution of freedom, if such can be, is in +effect no more than another name for the tyranny of the strongest +faction; and factions in republics have been, and are, full as capable +as monarchs of the most cruel oppression and injustice. It is but too +true, that the love, and even the very idea, of genuine liberty is +extremely rare. It is but too true that there are many whose whole +scheme of freedom is made up of pride, perverseness, and insolence. They +feel themselves in <a name="Page_417" id="Page_417" title="417" class="pagenum"></a>a state of thraldom, they imagine that their souls +are cooped and cabined in, unless they have some man or some body of men +dependent on their mercy. This desire of having some one below them +descends to those who are the very lowest of all; and a Protestant +cobbler, debased by his poverty, but exalted by his share of the ruling +church, feels a pride in knowing it is by his generosity alone that the +peer whose footman's instep he measures is able to keep his chaplain +from a jail. This disposition is the true source of the passion which +many men in very humble life have taken to the American war. <i>Our</i> +subjects in America; <i>our</i> colonies; <i>our</i> dependants. This lust of +party power is the liberty they hunger and thirst for; and this Siren +song of ambition has charmed ears that one would have thought were never +organized to that sort of music.</p> + +<p>This way of <i>proscribing the citizens by denominations and general +descriptions</i>, dignified by the name of reason of state, and security +for constitutions and commonwealths, is nothing better at bottom than +the miserable invention of an ungenerous ambition which would fain hold +the sacred trust of power, without any of the virtues or any of the +energies that give a title to it,—a receipt of policy, made up of a +detestable compound of malice, cowardice, and sloth. They would govern +men against their will; but in that government they would be discharged +from the exercise of vigilance, providence, and fortitude; and +therefore, that they may sleep on their watch, they consent to take some +one division of the society into partnership of the tyranny over the +rest. But let government, in what form it may be, comprehend the whole +in its justice, and restrain the suspicious <a name="Page_418" id="Page_418" title="418" class="pagenum"></a>by its vigilance,—let it +keep watch and ward,—let it discover by its sagacity, and punish by its +firmness, all delinquency against its power, whenever delinquency exists +in the overt acts,—and then it will be as safe as ever God and Nature +intended it should be. Crimes are the acts of individuals, and not of +denominations: and therefore arbitrarily to class men under general +descriptions, in order to proscribe and punish them in the lump for a +presumed delinquency, of which perhaps but a part, perhaps none at all, +are guilty, is indeed a compendious method, and saves a world of trouble +about proof; but such a method, instead of being law, is an act of +unnatural rebellion against the legal dominion of reason and justice; +and this vice, in any constitution that entertains it, at one time or +other will certainly bring on its ruin.</p> + +<p>We are told that this is not a religious persecution; and its abettors +are loud in disclaiming all severities on account of conscience. Very +fine indeed! Then, let it be so: they are not persecutors; they are only +tyrants. With all my heart. I am perfectly indifferent concerning the +pretexts upon which we torment one another,—or whether it be for the +constitution of the Church of England, or for the constitution of the +State of England, that people choose to make their fellow-creatures +wretched. When we were sent into a place of authority, you that sent us +had yourselves but one commission to give. You could give us none to +wrong or oppress, or even to suffer any kind of oppression or wrong, on +any grounds whatsoever: not on political, as in the affairs of America; +not on commercial, as in those of Ireland; not in civil, as in the laws +for debt; not in religious, as in the statutes against Protestant or +Catholic dissenters. The diver<a name="Page_419" id="Page_419" title="419" class="pagenum"></a>sified, but connected, fabric of +universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts; +and depend upon it, I never have employed, and I never shall employ, any +engine of power which may come into my hands to wrench it asunder. All +shall stand, if I can help it, and all shall stand connected. After all, +to complete this work, much remains to be done: much in the East, much +in the West. But, great as the work is, if our will be ready, our powers +are not deficient.</p> + +<p>Since you have suffered me to trouble you so much on this subject, +permit me, Gentlemen, to detain you a little longer. I am, indeed, most +solicitous to give you perfect satisfaction. I find there are some of a +better and softer nature than the persons with whom I have supposed +myself in debate, who neither think ill of the act of relief, nor by any +means desire the repeal,—yet who, not accusing, but lamenting, what was +done, on account of the consequences, have frequently expressed their +wish that the late act had never been made. Some of this description, +and persons of worth, I have met with in this city. They conceive that +the prejudices, whatever they might be, of a large part of the people, +ought not to have been shocked,—that their opinions ought to have been +previously taken, and much attended to,—and that thereby the late +horrid scenes might have been prevented.</p> + +<p>I confess, my notions are widely different; and I never was less sorry +for any action of my life. I like the bill the better on account of the +events of all kinds that followed it. It relieved the real sufferers; it +strengthened the state; and, by the disorders that ensued, we had clear +evidence that there lurked a temper somewhere which ought not to be +fostered by the laws. No ill consequences whatever could be <a name="Page_420" id="Page_420" title="420" class="pagenum"></a>attributed +to the act itself. We knew beforehand, or we were poorly instructed, +that toleration is odious to the intolerant, freedom to oppressors, +property to robbers, and all kinds and degrees of prosperity to the +envious. We knew that all these kinds of men would gladly gratify their +evil dispositions under the sanction of law and religion, if they could: +if they could not, yet, to make way to their objects, they would do +their utmost to subvert all religion and all law. This we certainly +knew. But, knowing this, is there any reason, because thieves break in +and steal, and thus bring detriment to you, and draw ruin on themselves, +that I am to be sorry that you are in possession of shops, and of +warehouses, and of wholesome laws to protect them? Are you to build no +houses, because desperate men may pull them down upon their own heads? +Or, if a malignant wretch will cut his own throat, because he sees you +give alms to the necessitous and deserving, shall his destruction be +attributed to your charity, and not to his own deplorable madness? If we +repent of our good actions, what, I pray you, is left for our faults and +follies? It is not the beneficence of the laws, it is the unnatural +temper which beneficence can fret and sour, that is to be lamented. It +is this temper which, by all rational means, ought to be sweetened and +corrected. If froward men should refuse this cure, can they vitiate +anything but themselves? Does evil so react upon good, as not only to +retard its motion, but to change its nature? If it can so operate, then +good men will always be in the power of the bad,—and virtue, by a +dreadful reverse of order, must lie under perpetual subjection and +bondage to vice.<a name="Page_421" id="Page_421" title="421" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>As to the opinion of the people, which some think, in such cases, is to +be implicitly obeyed,—near two years' tranquillity, which follows the +act, and its instant imitation in Ireland, proved abundantly that the +late horrible spirit was in a great measure the effect of insidious art, +and perverse industry, and gross misrepresentation. But suppose that the +dislike had been much more deliberate and much more general than I am +persuaded it was,—when we know that the opinions of even the greatest +multitudes are the standard of rectitude, I shall think myself obliged +to make those opinions the masters of my conscience. But if it may be +doubted whether Omnipotence itself is competent to alter the essential +constitution of right and wrong, sure I am that such <i>things</i> as they +and I are possessed of no such power. No man carries further than I do +the policy of making government pleasing to the people. But the widest +range of this politic complaisance is confined within the limits of +justice. I would not only consult the interest of the people, but I +would cheerfully gratify their humors. We are all a sort of children +that must be soothed and managed. I think I am not austere or formal in +my nature. I would bear, I would even play my part in, any innocent +buffooneries, to divert them. But I never will act the tyrant for their +amusement. If they will mix malice in their sports, I shall never +consent to throw them any living, sentient creature whatsoever, no, not +so much as a kitling, to torment.</p> + +<p>"But if I profess all this impolitic stubbornness, I may chance never to +be elected into Parliament."—It is certainly not pleasing to be put out +of the public service. But I wish to be a member of Parliament to have +my share of doing good and resisting evil. It <a name="Page_422" id="Page_422" title="422" class="pagenum"></a>would therefore be absurd +to renounce my objects in order to obtain my seat. I deceive myself, +indeed, most grossly, if I had not much rather pass the remainder of my +life hidden in the recesses of the deepest obscurity, feeding my mind +even with the visions and imaginations of such things, than to be placed +on the most splendid throne of the universe, tantalized with a denial of +the practice of all which can make the greatest situation any other than +the greatest curse. Gentlemen, I have had my day. I can never +sufficiently express my gratitude to you for having set me in a place +wherein I could lend the slightest help to great and laudable designs. +If I have had my share in any measure giving quiet to private property +and private conscience,—if by my vote I have aided in securing to +families the best possession, peace,—if I have joined in reconciling +kings to their subjects, and subjects to their prince,—if I have +assisted to loosen the foreign holdings of the citizen, and taught him +to look for his protection to the laws of his country, and for his +comfort to the good-will of his countrymen,—if I have thus taken my +part with the best of men in the best of their actions, I can shut the +book: I might wish to read a page or two more, but this is enough for my +measure. I have not lived in vain.</p> + +<p>And now, Gentlemen, on this serious day, when I come, as it were, to +make up my account with you, let me take to myself some degree of honest +pride on the nature of the charges that are against me. I do not here +stand before you accused of venality, or of neglect of duty. It is not +said, that, in the long period of my service, I have, in a single +instance, sacrificed the slightest of your interests to my ambition <a name="Page_423" id="Page_423" title="423" class="pagenum"></a>or +to my fortune. It is not alleged, that, to gratify any anger or revenge +of my own, or of my party, I have had a share in wronging or oppressing +any description of men, or any one man in any description. No! the +charges against me are all of one kind: that I have pushed the +principles of general justice and benevolence too far,—further than a +cautious policy would warrant, and further than the opinions of many +would go along with me. In every accident which may happen through life, +in pain, in sorrow, in depression, and distress, I will call to mind +this accusation, and be comforted.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, I submit the whole to your judgment. Mr. Mayor, I thank you +for the trouble you have taken on this occasion: in your state of health +it is particularly obliging. If this company should think it advisable +for me to withdraw, I shall respectfully retire; if you think otherwise, +I shall go directly to the Council-House and to the 'Change, and without +a moment's delay begin my canvass.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<p class="quotdate">BRISTOL, September 6, 1780.</p> + +<p>At a great and respectable meeting of the friends of EDMUND BURKE, Esq., +held at the Guildhall this day, the Right Worshipful the Mayor in the +chair:—Resolved, That Mr. Burke, as a representative for this city, has +done all possible honor to himself as a senator and a man, and that we +do heartily and honestly approve of his conduct, as the result of an +enlightened loyalty to his sovereign, a warm and zealous love to his +country through its widely extended empire, a jealous and watchful care +of the liberties of his fellow-subjects, an enlarged and liberal +un<a name="Page_424" id="Page_424" title="424" class="pagenum"></a>derstanding of our commercial interest, a humane attention to the +circumstances of even the lowest ranks of the community, and a truly +wise, politic, and tolerant spirit, in supporting the national church, +with a reasonable indulgence to all who dissent from it; and we wish to +express the most marked abhorrence of the base arts which have been +employed, without regard to truth and reason, to misrepresent his +eminent services to his country.</p> + +<p>Resolved, That this resolution be copied out, and signed by the +chairman, and be by him presented to Mr. Burke, as the fullest +expression of the respectful and grateful sense we entertain of his +merits and services, public and private, to the citizens of Bristol, as +a man and a representative.</p> + +<p>Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be given to the Right +Worshipful the Mayor, who so ably and worthily presided in this meeting.</p> + +<p>Resolved, That it is the earnest request of this meeting to Mr. Burke, +that he should again offer himself a candidate to represent this city in +Parliament; assuring him of that full and strenuous support which is due +to the merits of so excellent a representative.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>This business being over, Mr. Burke went to the Exchange, and offered +himself as a candidate in the usual manner. He was accompanied to the +Council-House, and from thence to the Exchange, by a large body of most +respectable gentlemen, amongst whom were the following members of the +corporation, viz.: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Alderman Smith, Mr. Alderman Deane, +Mr. Alderman Gordon, William Weare, Samuel Munckley, John Merlott, John +Crofts, Levy Ames, John Fisher Weare, Benjamin Loscombe, Philip +Protheroe, Samuel Span, Joseph Smith, Richard Bright and John Noble, +Esquires.<a name="Page_425" id="Page_425" title="425" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48" /><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Irish Perpetual Mutiny Act.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49" /><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Mr. Williams.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50" /><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> The Chancellor.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="DECLINING_THE_POLL" id="DECLINING_THE_POLL" /></p> +<h2>SPEECH AT BRISTOL,<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br /> +<br /> +DECLINING THE POLL<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">1780.</span></h2> +<p><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426" title="426" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427" title="427" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="quotdate">BRISTOL, Saturday, 9th Sept, 1780.</p> + +<p> This morning the sheriff and candidates assembled as usual at the + Council-House, and from thence proceeded to Guildhall. Proclamation + being made for the electors to appear and give their votes, Mr. + BURKE stood forward on the hustings, surrounded by a great number + of the corporation and other principal citizens, and addressed + himself to the whole assembly as follows.</p></div> + + +<p>Gentlemen,—I decline the election. It has ever been my rule through +life to observe a proportion between my efforts and my objects. I have +never been remarkable for a bold, active, and sanguine pursuit of +advantages that are personal to myself.</p> + +<p>I have not canvassed the whole of this city in form, but I have taken +such a view of it as satisfies my own mind that your choice will not +ultimately fall upon me. Your city, Gentlemen, is in a state of +miserable distraction, and I am resolved to withdraw whatever share my +pretensions may have had in its unhappy divisions. I have not been in +haste; I have tried all prudent means; I have waited for the effect of +all contingencies. If I were fond of a contest, by the partiality of my +numerous friends (whom you know to be among the most weighty and +respectable people of the city) I have the means of a sharp <a name="Page_428" id="Page_428" title="428" class="pagenum"></a>one in my +hands. But I thought it far better, with my strength unspent, and my +reputation unimpaired, to do, early and from foresight, that which I +might be obliged to do from necessity at last.</p> + +<p>I am not in the least surprised nor in the least angry at this view of +things. I have read the book of life for a long time, and I have read +other books a little. Nothing has happened to me, but what has happened +to men much better than me, and in times and in nations full as good as +the age and country that we live in. To say that I am no way concerned +would be neither decent nor true. The representation of <i>Bristol</i> was an +object on many accounts dear to me; and I certainly should very far +prefer it to any other in the kingdom. My habits are made to it; and it +is in general more unpleasant to be rejected after long trial than not +to be chosen at all.</p> + +<p>But, Gentlemen, I will see nothing except your former kindness, and I +will give way to no other sentiments than those of gratitude. From the +bottom of my heart I thank you for what you have done for me. You have +given me a long term, which is now expired. I have performed the +conditions, and enjoyed all the profits to the full; and I now surrender +your estate into your hands, without being in a single tile or a single +stone impaired or wasted by my use. I have served the public for fifteen +years. I have served you in particular for six. What is past is well +stored; it is safe, and out of the power of fortune. What is to come is +in wiser hands than ours; and He in whose hands it is best knows whether +it is best for you and me that I should be in Parliament, or even in the +world.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen, the melancholy event of yesterday <a name="Page_429" id="Page_429" title="429" class="pagenum"></a>reads to us an awful +lesson against being too much troubled about any of the objects of +ordinary ambition. The worthy gentleman<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51" /> +<a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor" title="Mr. Coombe.">[51]</a> who has been snatched from +us at the moment of the election, and in the middle of the contest, +whilst his desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as ours, has +feelingly told us what shadows we are and what shadows we pursue.</p> + +<p>It has been usual for a candidate who declines to take his leave by a +letter to the sheriffs: but I received your trust in the face of day, +and in the face of day I accept your dismission. I am not—I am not at +all ashamed to look upon you; nor can my presence discompose the order +of business here. I humbly and respectfully take my leave of the +sheriffs, the candidates, and the electors, wishing heartily that the +choice may be for the best, at a time which calls, if ever time did +call, for service that is not nominal. It is no plaything you are about. +I tremble, when I consider the trust I have presumed to ask. I confided, +perhaps, too much in my intentions. They were really fair and upright; +and I am bold to say that I ask no ill thing for you, when, on parting +from this place, I pray, that, whomever you choose to succeed me, he may +resemble me exactly in all things, except in my abilities to serve, and +my fortune to please you.<a name="Page_430" id="Page_430" title="430" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431" title="431" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51" /><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Mr. Coombe.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EAST_INDIA_BILL" id="EAST_INDIA_BILL" />SPEECH<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">(DECEMBER 1, 1783)</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">UPON</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%">THE QUESTION FOR THE SPEAKER'S LEAVING THE CHAIR IN ORDER FOR THE HOUSE<br /> +TO RESOLVE ITSELF INTO A COMMITTEE</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON</span><br /> +<br /> +MR. FOX'S EAST INDIA BILL.</h2> +<p><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432" title="432" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433" title="433" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p>Mr. Speaker,—I thank you for pointing to me. I really wished much to +engage your attention in an early stage of the debate. I have been long +very deeply, though perhaps ineffectually, engaged in the preliminary +inquiries, which have continued without intermission for some years. +Though I have felt, with some degree of sensibility, the natural and +inevitable impressions of the several matters of fact, as they have been +successively disclosed, I have not at any time attempted to trouble you +on the merits of the subject, and very little on any of the points which +incidentally arose in the course of our proceedings. But I should be +sorry to be found totally silent upon this day. Our inquiries are now +come to their final issue. It is now to be determined whether the three +years of laborious Parliamentary research, whether the twenty years of +patient Indian suffering, are to produce a substantial reform in our +Eastern administration; or whether our knowledge of the grievances has +abated our zeal for the correction of them, and our very inquiry into +the evil was only a pretext to elude the remedy which is demanded from +us by humanity, by justice, and by every principle of true policy. +Depend upon it, this business cannot be indifferent to our fame. It will +turn out a matter of great disgrace or great <a name="Page_434" id="Page_434" title="434" class="pagenum"></a>glory to the whole British +nation. We are on a conspicuous stage, and the world marks our demeanor.</p> + +<p>I am therefore a little concerned to perceive the spirit and temper in +which the debate has been all along pursued upon one side of the House. +The declamation of the gentlemen who oppose the bill has been abundant +and vehement; but they have been reserved and even silent about the +fitness or unfitness of the plan to attain the direct object it has in +view. By some gentlemen it is taken up (by way of exercise, I presume) +as a point of law, on a question of private property and corporate +franchise; by others it is regarded as the petty intrigue of a faction +at court, and argued merely as it tends to set this man a little higher +or that a little lower in situation and power. All the void has been +filled up with invectives against coalition, with allusions to the loss +of America, with the activity and inactivity of ministers. The total +silence of these gentlemen concerning the interest and well-being of the +people of India, and concerning the interest which this nation has in +the commerce and revenues of that country, is a strong indication of the +value which they set upon these objects.</p> + +<p>It has been a little painful to me to observe the intrusion into this +important debate of such company as <i>quo warranto</i>, and <i>mandamus</i>, and +<i>certiorari</i>: as if we were on a trial about mayors and aldermen and +capital burgesses, or engaged in a suit concerning the borough of +Penryn, or Saltash, or St. Ives, or St. Mawes. Gentlemen have argued +with as much heat and passion as if the first things in the world were +at stake; and their topics are such as belong only to matter of the +lowest and meanest litigation. It is <a name="Page_435" id="Page_435" title="435" class="pagenum"></a>not right, it is not worthy of us, +in this manner to depreciate the value, to degrade the majesty, of this +grave deliberation of policy and empire.</p> + +<p>For my part, I have thought myself bound, when a matter of this +extraordinary weight came before me, not to consider (as some gentlemen +are so fond of doing) whether the bill originated from a Secretary of +State for the Home Department or from a Secretary for the Foreign, from +a minister of influence or a minister of the people, from Jacob or from +Esau.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52" /><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor" title="An allusion made by Mr. Powis.">[52]</a> I asked myself, and I asked myself nothing else, what part it +was fit for a member of Parliament, who has supplied a mediocrity of +talents by the extreme of diligence, and who has thought himself obliged +by the research of years to wind himself into the inmost recesses and +labyrinths of the Indian detail,—what part, I say, it became such a +member of Parliament to take, when a minister of state, in conformity to +a recommendation from the throne, has brought before us a system for the +better government of the territory and commerce of the East. In this +light, and in this only, I will trouble you with my sentiments.</p> + +<p>It is not only agreed, but demanded, by the right honorable +gentleman,<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53" /><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor" title="Mr. Pitt.">[53]</a> and by those who act with him, that a <i>whole</i> system +ought to be produced; that it ought not to be an <i>half-measure</i>; that it +ought to be no <i>palliative</i>, but a legislative provision, vigorous, +substantial, and effective.—I believe that no man who understands the +subject can doubt for a moment that those must be the conditions of +anything deserving the name of a reform in the Indian government; that +anything short of them would not only be delu<a name="Page_436" id="Page_436" title="436" class="pagenum"></a>sive, but, in this matter, +which admits no medium, noxious in the extreme.</p> + +<p>To all the conditions proposed by his adversaries the mover of the bill +perfectly agrees; and on his performance of them he rests his cause. On +the other hand, not the least objection has been taken with regard to +the efficiency, the vigor, or the completeness of the scheme. I am +therefore warranted to assume, as a thing admitted, that the bills +accomplish what both sides of the House demand as essential. The end is +completely answered, so for as the direct and immediate object is +concerned.</p> + +<p>But though there are no direct, yet there are various collateral +objections made: objections from the effects which this plan of reform +for Indian administration may have on the privileges of great public +bodies in England; from its probable influence on the constitutional +rights, or on the freedom and integrity, of the several branches of the +legislature.</p> + +<p>Before I answer these objections, I must beg leave to observe, that, if +we are not able to contrive some method of governing India <i>well</i>, which +will not of necessity become the means of governing Great Britain <i>ill</i>, +a ground is laid for their eternal separation, but none for sacrificing +the people of that country to our Constitution. I am, however, far from +being persuaded that any such incompatibility of interest does at all +exist. On the contrary, I am certain that every means effectual to +preserve India from oppression is a guard to preserve the British +Constitution from its worst corruption. To show this, I will consider +the objections, which, I think, are four.</p> + +<p>1st, That the bill is an attack on the chartered rights of men.<a name="Page_437" id="Page_437" title="437" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>2ndly, That it increases the influence of the crown.</p> + +<p>3rdly, That it does <i>not</i> increase, but diminishes, the influence of the +crown, in order to promote the interests of certain ministers and their +party.</p> + +<p>4thly, That it deeply affects the national credit.</p> + +<p>As to the first of these objections, I must observe that the phrase of +"the chartered rights <i>of men</i>" is full of affectation, and very unusual +in the discussion of privileges conferred by charters of the present +description. But it is not difficult to discover what end that ambiguous +mode of expression, so often reiterated, is meant to answer.</p> + +<p>The rights of <i>men</i>—that is to say, the natural rights of mankind—are +indeed sacred things; and if any public measure is proved mischievously +to affect them, the objection ought to be fatal to that measure, even if +no charter at all could be set up against it. If these natural rights +are further affirmed and declared by express covenants, if they are +clearly defined and secured against chicane, against power and +authority, by written instruments and positive engagements, they are in +a still better condition: they partake not only of the sanctity of the +object so secured, but of that solemn public faith itself which secures +an object of such importance. Indeed, this formal recognition, by the +sovereign power, of an original right in the subject, can never be +subverted, but by rooting up the holding radical principles of +government, and even of society itself. The charters which we call by +distinction <i>great</i> are public instruments of this nature: I mean the +charters of King John and King Henry the Third. The things secured by +these instruments may, without any deceitful ambiguity, be very fitly +called <i>the chartered rights of men</i>.<a name="Page_438" id="Page_438" title="438" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>These charters have made the very name of a charter dear to the heart of +every Englishman. But, Sir, there may be, and there are, charters, not +only different in nature, but formed on principles <i>the very reverse</i> of +those of the Great Charter. Of this kind is the charter of the East +India Company. <i>Magna Charta</i> is a charter to restrain power and to +destroy monopoly. The East India charter is a charter to establish +monopoly and to create power. Political power and commercial monopoly +are <i>not</i> the rights of men; and the rights to them derived from +charters it is fallacious and sophistical to call "the chartered rights +of men." These chartered rights (to speak of such charters and of their +effects in terms of the greatest possible moderation) do at least +suspend the natural rights of mankind at large, and in their very frame +and constitution are liable to fall into a direct violation of them.</p> + + +<p>It is a charter of this latter description (that is to say, a charter of +power and monopoly) which is affected by the bill before you. The bill, +Sir, does without question affect it: it does affect it essentially and +substantially. But, having stated to you of what description the +chartered rights are which this bill touches, I feel no difficulty at +all in acknowledging the existence of those chartered rights in their +fullest extent. They belong to the Company in the surest manner, and +they are secured to that body by every sort of public sanction. They are +stamped by the faith of the king; they are stamped by the faith of +Parliament: they have been bought for money, for money honestly and +fairly paid; they have been bought for valuable consideration, over and +over again.<a name="Page_439" id="Page_439" title="439" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>I therefore freely admit to the East India Company their claim to +exclude their fellow-subjects from the commerce of half the globe. I +admit their claim to administer an annual territorial revenue of seven +millions sterling, to command an army of sixty thousand men, and to +dispose (under the control of a sovereign, imperial discretion, and with +the due observance of the natural and local law) of the lives and +fortunes of thirty millions of their fellow-creatures. All this they +possess by charter, and by Acts of Parliament, (in my opinion,) without +a shadow of controversy.</p> + +<p>Those who carry the rights and claims of the Company the furthest do not +contend for more than this; and all this I freely grant. But, granting +all this, they must grant to me, in my turn, that all political power +which is set over men, and that all privilege claimed or exercised in +exclusion of them, being wholly artificial, and for so much a derogation +from the natural equality of mankind at large, ought to be some way or +other exercised ultimately for their benefit.</p> + +<p>If this is true with regard to every species of political dominion and +every description of commercial privilege, none of which can be +original, self-derived rights, or grants for the mere private benefit of +the holders, then such rights, or privileges, or whatever else you +choose to call them, are all in the strictest sense <i>a trust</i>: and it is +of the very essence of every trust to be rendered <i>accountable</i>,—and +even totally to <i>cease</i>, when it substantially varies from the purposes +for which alone it could have a lawful existence.</p> + +<p>This I conceive, Sir, to be true of trusts of power vested in the +highest hands, and of such, as seem to <a name="Page_440" id="Page_440" title="440" class="pagenum"></a>hold of no human creature. But +about the application of this principle to subordinate <i>derivative</i> +trusts I do not see how a controversy can be maintained. To whom, then, +would I make the East India Company accountable? Why, to Parliament, to +be sure,—to Parliament, from whom their trust was derived,—to +Parliament, which alone is capable of comprehending the magnitude of its +object, and its abuse, and alone capable of an effectual legislative +remedy. The very charter, which is held out to exclude Parliament from +correcting malversation with regard to the high trust vested in the +Company, is the very thing which at once gives a title and imposes a +duty on us to interfere with effect, wherever power and authority +originating from ourselves are perverted from their purposes, and become +instruments of wrong and violence.</p> + +<p>If Parliament, Sir, had nothing to do with this charter, we might have +some sort of Epicurean excuse to stand aloof, indifferent spectators of +what passes in the Company's name in India and in London. But if we are +the very cause of the evil, we are in a special manner engaged to the +redress; and for us passively to bear with oppressions committed under +the sanction of our own authority is in truth and reason for this House +to be an active accomplice in the abuse.</p> + +<p>That the power, notoriously grossly abused, has been bought from us is +very certain. But this circumstance, which is urged against the bill, +becomes an additional motive for our interference, lest we should be +thought to have sold the blood of millions of men for the base +consideration of money. We sold, I admit, all that we had to sell,—that +is, our authority, not our control. We had not a right to make a market +of our duties.<a name="Page_441" id="Page_441" title="441" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>I ground myself, therefore, on this principle:—that, if the abuse is +proved, the contract is broken, and we reënter into all our rights, that +is, into the exercise of all our duties. Our own authority is, indeed, +as much a trust originally as the Company's authority is a trust +derivatively; and it is the use we make of the resumed power that must +justify or condemn us in the resumption of it. When we have perfected +the plan laid before us by the right honorable mover, the world will +then see what it is we destroy, and what it is we create. By that test +we stand or fall; and by that test I trust that it will be found, in the +issue, that we are going to supersede a charter abused to the full +extent of all the powers which it could abuse, and exercised in the +plenitude of despotism, tyranny, and corruption,—and that in one and +the same plan we provide a real chartered security for <i>the rights of +men</i>, cruelly violated under that charter.</p> + +<p>This bill, and those connected with it, are intended to form the <i>Magna +Charta</i> of Hindostan. Whatever the Treaty of Westphalia is to the +liberty of the princes and free cities of the Empire, and to the three +religions there professed,—whatever the Great Charter, the Statute of +Tallage, the Petition of Right, and the Declaration of Right are to +Great Britain, these bills are to the people of India. Of this benefit I +am certain their condition is capable: and when I know that they are +capable of more, my vote shall most assuredly be for our giving to the +full extent of their capacity of receiving; and no charter of dominion +shall stand as a bar in my way to their charter of safety and +protection.</p> + +<p>The strong admission I have made of the Company's rights (I am conscious +of it) binds me to do a great <a name="Page_442" id="Page_442" title="442" class="pagenum"></a>deal. I do not presume to condemn those +who argue <i>a priori</i> against the propriety of leaving such extensive +political powers in the hands of a company of merchants. I know much is, +and much more may be, said against such a system. But, with my +particular ideas and sentiments, I cannot go that way to work. I feel an +insuperable reluctance in giving my hand to destroy any established +institution of government, upon a theory, however plausible it may be. +My experience in life teaches me nothing clear upon the subject. I have +known merchants with the sentiments and the abilities of great +statesmen, and I have seen persons in the rank of statesmen with the +conceptions and character of peddlers. Indeed, my observation has +furnished me with nothing that is to be found in any habits of life or +education, which tends wholly to disqualify men for the functions of +government, but that by which the power of exercising those functions is +very frequently obtained: I mean a spirit and habits of low cabal and +intrigue; which I have never, in one instance, seen united with a +capacity for sound and manly policy.</p> + +<p>To justify us in taking the administration of their affairs out of the +hands of the East India Company, on my principles, I must see several +conditions. 1st, The object affected by the abuse should be great and +important. 2nd, The abuse affecting this great object ought to be a +great abuse. 3d, It ought to be habitual, and not accidental. 4th, It +ought to be utterly incurable in the body as it now stands constituted. +All this ought to be made as visible to me as the light of the sun, +before I should strike off an atom of their charter. A right honorable +gentleman<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54" /><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor" title="Mr. Pitt.">[54]</a> has <a name="Page_443" id="Page_443" title="443" class="pagenum"></a>said, and said, I think, but once, and that very +slightly, (whatever his original demand for a plan might seem to +require,) that "there are abuses in the Company's government." If that +were all, the scheme of the mover of this bill, the scheme of his +learned friend, and his own scheme of reformation, (if he has any,) are +all equally needless. There are, and must be, abuses in all governments. +It amounts to no more than a nugatory proposition. But before I consider +of what nature these abuses are, of which the gentleman speaks so very +lightly, permit me to recall to your recollection the map of the country +which this abused chartered right affects. This I shall do, that you may +judge whether in that map I can discover anything like the first of my +conditions: that is, whether the object affected by the abuse of the +East India Company's power be of importance sufficient to justify the +measure and means of reform applied to it in this bill.</p> + +<p>With very few, and those inconsiderable intervals, the British dominion, +either in the Company's name, or in the names of princes absolutely +dependent upon the Company, extends from the mountains that separate +India from Tartary to Cape Comorin, that is, one-and-twenty degrees of +latitude!</p> + +<p>In the northern parts it is a solid mass of land, about eight hundred +miles in length, and four or five hundred broad. As you go southward, it +becomes narrower for a space. It afterwards dilates; but, narrower or +broader, you possess the whole eastern and northeastern coast of that +vast country, quite from the borders of Pegu.—Bengal, Bahar, and +Orissa, with Benares, (now unfortunately in our immediate possession,) +measure 161,978 square English <a name="Page_444" id="Page_444" title="444" class="pagenum"></a>miles: a territory considerably larger +than the whole kingdom of France. Oude, with its dependent provinces, is +53,286 square miles: not a great deal less than England. The Carnatic, +with Tanjore and the Circars, is 65,948 square miles: very considerably +larger than England. And the whole of the Company's dominions, +comprehending Bombay and Salsette, amounts to 281,412 square miles: +which forms a territory larger than any European dominion, Russia and +Turkey excepted. Through all that vast extent of country there is not a +man who eats a mouthful of rice but by permission of the East India +Company.</p> + +<p>So far with regard to the extent. The population of this great empire is +not easy to be calculated. When the countries of which it is composed +came into our possession, they were all eminently peopled, and eminently +productive,—though at that time considerably declined from their +ancient prosperity. But since they are come into our hands!—--! +However, if we make the period of our estimate immediately before the +utter desolation of the Carnatic, and if we allow for the havoc which +our government had even then made in these regions, we cannot, in my +opinion, rate the population at much less than thirty millions of souls: +more than four times the number of persons in the island of Great +Britain.</p> + +<p>My next inquiry to that of the number is the quality and description of +the inhabitants. This multitude of men does not consist of an abject and +barbarous populace; much less of gangs of savages, like the Guaranies +and Chiquitos, who wander on the waste borders of the River of Amazons +or the Plate; but a people for ages civilized and +cultivated,—cultivated <a name="Page_445" id="Page_445" title="445" class="pagenum"></a>by all the arts of polished life, whilst we +were yet in the woods. There have been (and still the skeletons remain) +princes once of great dignity, authority, and opulence. There are to be +found the chiefs of tribes and nations. There is to be found an ancient +and venerable priesthood, the depository of their laws, learning, and +history, the guides of the people whilst living and their consolation in +death; a nobility of great antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities, +not exceeded in population and trade by those of the first class in +Europe; merchants and bankers, individual houses of whom have once vied +in capital with the Bank of England, whose credit had often supported a +tottering state, and preserved their governments in the midst of war and +desolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics; millions +of the most diligent, and not the least intelligent, tillers of the +earth. Here are to be found almost all the religions professed by +men,—the Braminical, the Mussulman, the Eastern and the Western +Christian.</p> + +<p>If I were to take the whole aggregate of our possessions there, I should +compare it, as the nearest parallel I can find, with the Empire of +Germany. Our immediate possessions I should compare with the Austrian +dominions: and they would not suffer in the comparison. The Nabob of +Oude might stand for the King of Prussia; the Nabob of Arcot I would +compare, as superior in territory, and equal in revenue, to the Elector +of Saxony. Cheit Sing, the Rajah of Benares, might well rank with the +Prince of Hesse, at least; and the Rajah of Tanjore (though hardly equal +in extent of dominion, superior in revenue) to the Elector of Bavaria. +The polygars and <a name="Page_446" id="Page_446" title="446" class="pagenum"></a>the Northern zemindars, and other great chiefs, might +well class with the rest of the princes, dukes, counts, marquises, and +bishops in the Empire; all of whom I mention to honor, and surely +without disparagement to any or all of those most respectable princes +and grandees.</p> + +<p>All this vast mass, composed of so many orders and classes of men, is +again infinitely diversified by manners, by religion, by hereditary +employment, through all their possible combinations. This renders the +handling of India a matter in an high degree critical and delicate. But, +oh, it has been handled rudely indeed! Even some of the reformers seem +to have forgot that they had anything to do but to regulate the tenants +of a manor, or the shopkeepers of the next county town.</p> + +<p>It is an empire of this extent, of this complicated nature, of this +dignity and importance, that I have compared to Germany and the German +government,—not for an exact resemblance, but as a sort of a middle +term, by which India might be approximated to our understandings, and, +if possible, to our feelings, in order to awaken something of sympathy +for the unfortunate natives, of which I am afraid we are not perfectly +susceptible, whilst we look at this very remote object through a false +and cloudy medium.</p> + +<p>My second condition necessary to justify me in touching the charter is, +whether the Company's abuse of their trust with regard to this great +object be an abuse of great atrocity. I shall beg your permission to +consider their conduct in two lights: first the political, and then the +commercial. Their political conduct (for distinctness) I divide again +into two heads: the external, in which I mean <a name="Page_447" id="Page_447" title="447" class="pagenum"></a>to comprehend their +conduct in their federal capacity, as it relates to powers and states +independent, or that not long since were such; the other +internal,—namely, their conduct to the countries, either immediately +subject to the Company, or to those who, under the apparent government +of native sovereigns, are in a state much lower and much more miserable +than common subjection.</p> + +<p>The attention, Sir, which I wish to preserve to method will not be +considered as unnecessary or affected. Nothing else can help me to +selection out of the infinite mass of materials which have passed under +my eye, or can keep my mind steady to the great leading points I have in +view.</p> + +<p>With regard, therefore, to the abuse of the external federal trust, I +engage myself to you to make good these three positions. First, I say, +that from Mount Imaus, (or whatever else you call that large range of +mountains that walls the northern frontier of India,) where it touches +us in the latitude of twenty-nine, to Cape Comorin, in the latitude of +eight, that there is not a <i>single</i> prince, state, or potentate, great +or small, in India, with whom they have come into contact, whom they +have not sold: I say <i>sold</i>, though sometimes they have not been able to +deliver according to their bargain. Secondly, I say, that there is not a +<i>single treaty</i> they have ever made which they have not broken. Thirdly, +I say, that there is not a single prince or state, who ever put any +trust in the Company, who is not utterly ruined; and that none are in +any degree secure or flourishing, but in the exact proportion to their +settled distrust and irreconcilable enmity to this nation.</p> + +<p>These assertions are universal: I say, in the full <a name="Page_448" id="Page_448" title="448" class="pagenum"></a>sense, <i>universal</i>. +They regard the external and political trust only; but I shall produce +others fully equivalent in the internal. For the present, I shall +content myself with explaining my meaning; and if I am called on for +proof, whilst these bills are depending, (which I believe I shall not,) +I will put my finger on the appendixes to the Reports, or on papers of +record in the House or the Committees, which I have distinctly present +to my memory, and which I think I can lay before you at half an hour's +warning.</p> + +<p>The first potentate sold by the Company for money was the Great +Mogul,—the descendant of Tamerlane. This high personage, as high as +human veneration can look at, is by every account amiable in his +manners, respectable for his piety, according to his mode, and +accomplished in all the Oriental literature. All this, and the title +derived under his <i>charter</i> to all that we hold in India, could not save +him from the general <i>sale</i>. Money is coined in his name; in his name +justice is administered; he is prayed for in every temple through the +countries we possess;—but he was sold.</p> + +<p>It is impossible, Mr. Speaker, not to pause here for a moment, to +reflect on the inconstancy of human greatness, and the stupendous +revolutions that have happened in our age of wonders. Could it be +believed, when I entered into existence, or when you, a younger man, +were born, that on this day, in this House, we should be employed in +discussing the conduct of those British subjects who had disposed of the +power and person of the Grand Mogul? This is no idle speculation. Awful +lessons are taught by it, and by other events, of which it is not yet +too late to profit.<a name="Page_449" id="Page_449" title="449" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>This is hardly a digression: but I return to the sale of the Mogul. Two +districts, Corah and Allahabad, out of his immense grants, were reserved +as a royal demesne to the donor of a kingdom, and the rightful sovereign +of so many nations.—After withholding the tribute of 260,000<i>l.</i> a +year, which the Company was, by the <i>charter</i> they had received from +this prince, under the most solemn obligation to pay, these districts +were sold to his chief minister, Sujah ul Dowlah; and what may appear to +some the worst part of the transaction, these two districts were sold +for scarcely two years' purchase. The descendant of Tamerlane now stands +in need almost of the common necessaries of life; and in this situation +we do not even allow him, as bounty, the smallest portion of what we owe +him in justice.</p> + +<p>The next sale was that of the whole nation of the Rohillas, which the +grand salesman, without a pretence of quarrel, and contrary to his own +declared sense of duty and rectitude, sold to the same Sujah ul Dowlah. +He sold the people to utter <i>extirpation</i>, for the sum of four hundred +thousand pounds. Faithfully was the bargain performed on our side. Hafiz +Rhamet, the most eminent of their chiefs, one of the bravest men of his +time, and as famous throughout the East for the elegance of his +literature and the spirit of his poetical compositions (by which he +supported the name of Hafiz) as for his courage, was invaded with an +army of an hundred thousand men, and an English brigade. This man, at +the head of inferior forces, was slain valiantly fighting for his +country. His head was cut off, and delivered for money to a barbarian. +His wife and children, persons of that rank, were seen begging an +handful of <a name="Page_450" id="Page_450" title="450" class="pagenum"></a>rice through the English camp. The whole nation, with +inconsiderable exceptions, was slaughtered or banished. The country was +laid waste with fire and sword; and that land, distinguished above most +others by the cheerful face of paternal government and protected labor, +the chosen seat of cultivation and plenty, is now almost throughout a +dreary desert, covered with rushes, and briers, and jungles full of wild +beasts.</p> + +<p>The British officer who commanded in the delivery of the people thus +sold felt some compunction at his employment. He represented these +enormous excesses to the President of Bengal, for which he received a +severe reprimand from the civil governor; and I much doubt whether the +breach caused by the conflict between the compassion of the military and +the firmness of the civil governor be closed at this hour.</p> + +<p>In Bengal, Surajah Dowlah was sold to Mir Jaffier; Mir Jaffier was sold +to Mir Cossim; and Mir Cossim was sold to Mir Jaffier again. The +succession to Mir Jaffier was sold to his eldest son;—another son of +Mir Jaffier, Mobarech ul Dowlah, was sold to his step-mother. The +Mahratta Empire was sold to Ragobah; and Ragobah was sold and delivered +to the Peishwa of the Mahrattas. Both Ragobah and the Peishwa of the +Mahrattas were offered to sale to the Rajah of Berar. Scindia, the chief +of Malwa, was offered to sale to the same Rajah; and the Subah of the +Deccan was sold to the great trader, Mahomet Ali, Nabob of Arcot. To the +same Nabob of Arcot they sold Hyder Ali and the kingdom of Mysore. To +Mahomet Ali they twice sold the kingdom of Tanjore. To the same Mahomet +Ali they sold at least twelve <a name="Page_451" id="Page_451" title="451" class="pagenum"></a>sovereign princes, called the Polygars. +But to keep things even, the territory of Tinnevelly, belonging to their +nabob, they would have sold to the Dutch; and to conclude the account of +sales, their great customer, the Nabob of Arcot himself, and his lawful +succession, has been sold to his second son, Amir ul Omrah, whose +character, views, and conduct are in the accounts upon your table. It +remains with you whether they shall finally perfect this last bargain.</p> + +<p>All these bargains and sales were regularly attended with the waste and +havoc of the country,—always by the buyer, and sometimes by the object +of the sale. This was explained to you by the honorable mover, when he +stated the mode of paying debts due from the country powers to the +Company. An honorable gentleman, who is not now in his place, objected +to his jumping near two thousand miles for an example. But the southern +example is perfectly applicable to the northern claim, as the northern +is to the southern; for, throughout the whole space of these two +thousand miles, take your stand where you will, the proceeding is +perfectly uniform, and what is done in one part will apply exactly to +the other.</p> + +<p>My second assertion is, that the Company never has made a treaty which +they have not broken. This position is so connected with that of the +sales of provinces and kingdoms, with the negotiation of universal +distraction in every part of India, that a very minute detail may well +be spared on this point. It has not yet been contended, by any enemy to +the reform, that they have observed any public agreement. When I hear +that they have done so in any one instance, (which hitherto, I confess, +I never heard alleged,) I shall speak to the particular treaty. The +Governor<a name="Page_452" id="Page_452" title="452" class="pagenum"></a> General has even amused himself and the Court of Directors in +a very singular letter to that board, in which he admits he has not been +very delicate with regard to public faith; and he goes so far as to +state a regular estimate of the sums which the Company would have lost, +or never acquired, if the rigid ideas of public faith entertained by his +colleagues had been observed. The learned gentleman<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55" /> +<a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor" title="Mr. Dundas, Lord Advocate of Scotland.">[55]</a> over against me +has, indeed, saved me much trouble. On a former occasion, he obtained no +small credit for the clear and forcible manner in which he stated, what +we have not forgot, and I hope he has not forgot, that universal, +systematic breach of treaties which had made the British faith +proverbial in the East.</p> + +<p>It only remains, Sir, for me just to recapitulate some heads.—The +treaty with the Mogul, by which we stipulated to pay him 260,000<i>l.</i> +annually, was broken. This treaty they have broken, and not paid him a +shilling. They broke their treaty with him, in which they stipulated to +pay 400,000<i>l.</i> a year to the Subah of Bengal. They agreed with the +Mogul, for services admitted to have been performed, to pay Nudjif Cawn +a pension. They broke this article with the rest, and stopped also this +small pension. They broke their treaties with the Nizam, and with Hyder +Ali. As to the Mahrattas, they had so many cross treaties with the +states-general of that nation, and with each of the chiefs, that it was +notorious that no one of these agreements could be kept without grossly +violating the rest. It was observed, that, if the terms of these several +treaties had been kept, two British armies would at one and the same +time have met in the field to cut each other's throats. The wars which +<a name="Page_453" id="Page_453" title="453" class="pagenum"></a>desolate India originated from a most atrocious violation of public +faith on our part. In the midst of profound peace, the Company's troops +invaded the Mahratta territories, and surprised the island and fortress +of Salsette. The Mahrattas nevertheless yielded to a treaty of peace by +which solid advantages were procured to the Company. But this treaty, +like every other treaty, was soon violated by the Company. Again the +Company invaded the Mahratta dominions. The disaster that ensued gave +occasion to a new treaty. The whole army of the Company was obliged in +effect to surrender to this injured, betrayed, and insulted people. +Justly irritated, however, as they were, the terms which they prescribed +were reasonable and moderate, and their treatment of their captive +invaders of the most distinguished humanity. But the humanity of the +Mahrattas was of no power whatsoever to prevail on the Company to attend +to the observance of the terms dictated by their moderation. The war was +renewed with greater vigor than ever; and such was their insatiable lust +of plunder, that they never would have given ear to any terms of peace, +if Hyder Ali had not broke through the Ghauts, and, rushing like a +torrent into the Carnatic, swept away everything in his career. This was +in consequence of that confederacy which by a sort of miracle united the +most discordant powers for our destruction, as a nation in which no +other could put any trust, and who were the declared enemies of the +human species.</p> + +<p>It is very remarkable that the late controversy between the several +presidencies, and between them and the Court of Directors, with relation +to these wars and treaties, has not been, which of the parties might be +<a name="Page_454" id="Page_454" title="454" class="pagenum"></a>defended for his share in them, but on which of the parties the guilt +of all this load of perfidy should be fixed. But I am content to admit +all these proceedings to be perfectly regular, to be full of honor and +good faith; and wish to fix your attention solely to that single +transaction which the advocates of this system select for so +transcendent a merit as to cancel the guilt of all the rest of their +proceedings: I mean the late treaties with the Mahrattas.</p> + +<p>I make no observation on the total cession of territory, by which they +surrendered all they had obtained by their unhappy successes in war, and +almost all they had obtained under the treaty of Poorunder. The +restitution was proper, if it had been voluntary and seasonable. I +attach on the spirit of the treaty, the dispositions it showed, the +provisions it made for a general peace, and the faith kept with allies +and confederates,—in order that the House may form a judgment, from +this chosen piece, of the use which has been made (and is likely to be +made, if things continue in the same hands) of the trust of the federal +powers of this country.</p> + +<p>It was the wish of almost every Englishman that the Mahratta peace might +lead to a general one; because the Mahratta war was only a part of a +general confederacy formed against us, on account of the universal +abhorrence of our conduct which prevailed in every state, and almost in +every house in India. Mr. Hastings was obliged to pretend some sort of +acquiescence in this general and rational desire. He therefore +consented, in order to satisfy the point of honor of the Mahrattas, that +an article should be inserted to admit Hyder Ali to accede to the +pacification. But observe, Sir, the spirit of this man,—which, if it +were <a name="Page_455" id="Page_455" title="455" class="pagenum"></a>not made manifest by a thousand things, and particularly by his +proceedings with regard to Lord Macartney, would be sufficiently +manifest by this. What sort of article, think you, does he require this +essential head of a solemn treaty of general pacification to be? In his +instruction to Mr. Anderson, he desires him to admit "a <i>vague</i> article" +in favor of Hyder. Evasion and fraud were the declared basis of the +treaty. These <i>vague</i> articles, intended for a more vague performance, +are the things which have damned our reputation in India.</p> + +<p>Hardly was this vague article inserted, than, without waiting for any +act on the part of Hyder, Mr. Hastings enters into a negotiation with +the Mahratta chief, Scindia, for a partition of the territories of the +prince who was one of the objects to be secured by the treaty. He was to +be parcelled out in three parts: one to Scindia; one to the Peishwa of +the Mahrattas; and the third to the East India Company, or to (the old +dealer and chapman) Mahomet Ali.</p> + +<p>During the formation of this project, Hyder dies; and before his son +could take any one step, either to conform to the tenor of the article +or to contravene it, the treaty of partition is renewed on the old +footing, and an instruction is sent to Mr. Anderson to conclude it in +form.</p> + +<p>A circumstance intervened, during the pendency of this negotiation, to +set off the good faith of the Company with an additional brilliancy, and +to make it sparkle and glow with a variety of splendid faces. General +Matthews had reduced that most valuable part of Hyder's dominions called +the country of Biddanore. When the news reached Mr. Hastings, he +instructed Mr. Anderson to contend for an alteration <a name="Page_456" id="Page_456" title="456" class="pagenum"></a>in the treaty of +partition, and to take the Biddanore country out of the common stock +which was to be divided, and to keep it for the Company.</p> + +<p>The first ground for this variation was its being a separate conquest +made before the treaty had actually taken place. Here was a new proof +given of the fairness, equity, and moderation of the Company. But the +second of Mr. Hastings's reasons for retaining the Biddanore as a +separate portion, and his conduct on that second ground, is still more +remarkable. He asserted that that country could not be put into the +partition stock, because General Matthews had received it on the terms +of some convention which might be incompatible with the partition +proposed. This was a reason in itself both honorable and solid; and it +showed a regard to faith somewhere, and with some persons. But in order +to demonstrate his utter contempt of the plighted faith which was +alleged on one part as a reason for departing from it on another, and to +prove his impetuous desire for sowing a new war even in the prepared +soil of a general pacification, he directs Mr. Anderson, if he should +find strong difficulties impeding the partition on the score of the +subtraction of Biddanore, wholly to abandon that claim, and to conclude +the treaty on the original terms. General Matthews's convention was just +brought forward sufficiently to demonstrate to the Mahrattas the +slippery hold which they had on their new confederate; on the other +hand, that convention being instantly abandoned, the people of India +were taught that no terms on which they can surrender to the Company are +to be regarded, when farther conquests are in view.</p> + +<p>Next, Sir, let me bring before you the pious care that was taken of our +allies under that treaty which <a name="Page_457" id="Page_457" title="457" class="pagenum"></a>is the subject of the Company's +applauses. These allies were Ragonaut Row, for whom we had engaged to +find a throne; the Guickwar, (one of the Guzerat princes,) who was to be +emancipated from the Mahratta authority, and to grow great by several +accessions of dominion; and, lastly, the Rana of Gohud, with whom we had +entered into a treaty of partition for eleven sixteenths of our joint +conquests. Some of these inestimable securities called <i>vague</i> articles +were inserted in favor of them all.</p> + +<p>As to the first, the unhappy abdicated Peishwa, and pretender to the +Mahratta throne, Ragonaut Row, was delivered up to his people, with an +article for safety, and some provision. This man, knowing how little +vague the hatred of his countrymen was towards him, and well apprised of +what black crimes he stood accused, (among which our invasion of his +country would not appear the least,) took a mortal alarm at the security +we had provided for him. He was thunderstruck at the article in his +favor, by which he was surrendered to his enemies. He never had the +least notice of the treaty; and it was apprehended that he would fly to +the protection of Hyder Ali, or some other, disposed or able to protect +him. He was therefore not left without comfort; for Mr. Anderson did him +the favor to send a special messenger, desiring him to be of good cheer +and to fear nothing. And his old enemy, Scindia, at our request, sent +him a message equally well calculated to quiet his apprehensions.</p> + +<p>By the same treaty the Guickwar was to come again, with no better +security, under the dominion of the Mahratta state. As to the Rana of +Gohud, a long negotiation depended for giving him up. At <a name="Page_458" id="Page_458" title="458" class="pagenum"></a>first this was +refused by Mr. Hastings with great indignation; at another stage it was +admitted as proper, because he had shown himself a most perfidious +person. But at length a method of reconciling these extremes was found +out, by contriving one of the usual articles in his favor. What I +believe will appear beyond all belief, Mr. Anderson exchanged the final +ratifications of that treaty by which the Rana was nominally secured in +his possessions, in the camp of the Mahratta chief, Scindia, whilst he +was (really, and not nominally) battering the castle of Gwalior, which +we had given, agreeably to treaty, to this deluded ally. Scindia had +already reduced the town, and was at the very time, by various +detachments, reducing, one after another, the fortresses of our +protected ally, as well as in the act of chastising all the rajahs who +had assisted Colonel Camac in his invasion. I have seen in a letter from +Calcutta, that the Rana of Gohud's agent would have represented these +hostilities (which went hand in hand with the protecting treaty) to Mr. +Hastings, but he was not admitted to his presence.</p> + +<p>In this manner the Company has acted with their allies in the Mahratta +war. But they did not rest here. The Mahrattas were fearful lest the +persons delivered to them by that treaty should attempt to escape into +the British territories, and thus might elude the punishment intended +for them, and, by reclaiming the treaty, might stir up new disturbances. +To prevent this, they desired an article to be inserted in the +supplemental treaty, to which they had the ready consent of Mr. +Hastings, and the rest of the Company's representatives in Bengal. It +was this: "That the English and Mahratta governments mutually agree <a name="Page_459" id="Page_459" title="459" class="pagenum"></a>not +to afford refuge to any <i>chiefs, merchants, or other persons</i>, flying +for protection to the territories of the other." This was readily +assented to, and assented to without any exception whatever in favor of +our surrendered allies. On their part a reciprocity was stipulated which +was not unnatural for a government like the Company's to ask,—a +government conscious that many subjects had been, and would in future +be, driven to fly from its jurisdiction.</p> + +<p>To complete the system of pacific intention and public faith which +predominate in those treaties, Mr. Hastings fairly resolved to put all +peace, except on the terms of absolute conquest, wholly out of his own +power. For, by an article in this second treaty with Scindia, he binds +the Company not to make any peace with Tippoo Sahib without the consent +of the Peishwa of the Mahrattas, and binds Scindia to him by a +reciprocal engagement. The treaty between France and England obliges us +mutually to withdraw our forces, if our allies in India do not accede to +the peace within four months; Mr. Hastings's treaty obliges us to +continue the war as long as the Peishwa thinks fit. We are now in that +happy situation, that the breach of the treaty with France, or the +violation of that with the Mahrattas, is inevitable; and we have only to +take our choice.</p> + +<p>My third assertion, relative to the abuse made of the right of war and +peace, is, that there are none who have ever confided in us who have not +been utterly ruined. The examples I have given of Ragonaut Row, of +Guickwar, of the Rana of Gohud, are recent. There is proof more than +enough in the condition of the Mogul,—in the slavery and indigence of +the Nabob of Oude,—the exile of the Rajah of Benares,—<a name="Page_460" id="Page_460" title="460" class="pagenum"></a>the beggary of +the Nabob of Bengal,—the undone and captive condition of the Rajah and +kingdom of Tanjore,—the destruction of the Polygars,—and, lastly, in +the destruction of the Nabob of Arcot himself, who, when his dominions +were invaded, was found entirely destitute of troops, provisions, +stores, and (as he asserts) of money, being a million in debt to the +Company, and four millions to others: the many millions which he had +extorted from so many extirpated princes and their desolated countries +having (as he has frequently hinted) been expended for the ground-rent +of his mansion-house in an alley in the suburbs of Madras. Compare the +condition of all these princes with the power and authority of all the +Mahratta states, with the independence and dignity of the Subah of the +Deccan, and the mighty strength, the resources, and the manly struggle +of Hyder Ali,—and then the House will discover the effects, on every +power in India, of an easy confidence or of a rooted distrust in the +faith of the Company.</p> + +<p>These are some of my reasons, grounded on the abuse of the external +political trust of that body, for thinking myself not only justified, +but bound, to declare against those chartered rights which produce so +many wrongs. I should deem myself the wickedest of men, if any vote of +mine could contribute to the continuance of so great an evil.</p> + +<p>Now, Sir, according to the plan I proposed, I shall take notice of the +Company's internal government, as it is exercised first on the dependent +provinces, and then as it affects those under the direct and immediate +authority of that body. And here, Sir, before I enter into the spirit of +their interior government, permit me to observe to you upon a few of the +many <a name="Page_461" id="Page_461" title="461" class="pagenum"></a>lines of difference which are to be found between the vices of the +Company's government and those of the conquerors who preceded us in +India, that we may be enabled a little the better to see our way in an +attempt to the necessary reformation.</p> + +<p>The several irruptions of Arabs, Tartars, and Persians into India were, +for the greater part, ferocious, bloody, and wasteful in the extreme: +our entrance into the dominion of that country was, as generally, with +small comparative effusion of blood,—being introduced by various frauds +and delusions, and by taking advantage of the incurable, blind, and +senseless animosity which the several country powers bear towards each +other, rather than by open force. But the difference in favor of the +first conquerors is this. The Asiatic conquerors very soon abated of +their ferocity, because they made the conquered country their own. They +rose or fell with the rise or fall of the territory they lived in. +Fathers there deposited the hopes of their posterity; and children there +beheld the monuments of their fathers. Here their lot was finally cast; +and it is the natural wish of all that their lot should not be cast in a +bad land. Poverty, sterility, and desolation are not a recreating +prospect to the eye of man; and there are very few who can bear to grow +old among the curses of a whole people. If their passion or their +avarice drove the Tartar lords to acts of rapacity or tyranny, there was +time enough, even in the short life of man, to bring round the ill +effects of an abuse of power upon the power itself. If hoards were made +by violence and tyranny, they were still domestic hoards; and domestic +profusion, or the rapine of a more powerful and prodigal hand, restored +them to the people. With many disorders, <a name="Page_462" id="Page_462" title="462" class="pagenum"></a>and with few political checks +upon power, Nature had still fair play; the sources of acquisition were +not dried up; and therefore the trade, the manufactures, and the +commerce of the country flourished. Even avarice and usury itself +operated both for the preservation and the employment of national +wealth. The husbandman and manufacturer paid heavy interest, but then +they augmented the fund from whence they were again to borrow. Their +resources were dearly bought, but they were sure; and the general stock +of the community grew by the general effort.</p> + +<p>But under the English government all this order is reversed. The Tartar +invasion was mischievous; but it is our protection that destroys India. +It was their enmity; but it is our friendship. Our conquest there, after +twenty years, is as crude as it was the first day. The natives scarcely +know what it is to see the gray head of an Englishman. Young men (boys +almost) govern there, without society and without sympathy with the +natives. They have no more social habits with the people than if they +still resided in England,—nor, indeed, any species of intercourse, but +that which is necessary to making a sudden fortune, with a view to a +remote settlement. Animated with all the avarice of age and all the +impetuosity of youth, they roll in one after another, wave after wave; +and there is nothing before the eyes of the natives but an endless, +hopeless prospect of new flights of birds of prey and passage, with +appetites continually renewing for a food that is continually wasting. +Every rupee of profit made by an Englishman is lost forever to India. +With us are no retributory superstitions, by which a foundation of +charity compensates, through ages, to the poor, for the rapine and +injustice of a <a name="Page_463" id="Page_463" title="463" class="pagenum"></a>day. With us no pride erects stately monuments which +repair the mischiefs which pride had produced, and which adorn a country +out of its own spoils. England has erected no churches, no +hospitals,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56" /><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor" +title="The paltry foundation at Calcutta is scarcely worth naming as an exception.">[56]</a> no palaces, no schools; England has built no bridges, +made no high-roads, cut no navigations, dug out no reservoirs. Every +other conqueror of every other description has left some monument, +either of state or beneficence, behind him. Were we to be driven out of +India this day, nothing would remain to tell that it had been possessed, +during the inglorious period of our dominion, by anything better than +the orang-outang or the tiger.</p> + +<p>There is nothing in the boys we send to India worse than in the boys +whom we are whipping at school, or that we see trailing a pike or +bending over a desk at home. But as English youth in India drink the +intoxicating draught of authority and dominion before their heads are +able to bear it, and as they are full grown in fortune long before they +are ripe in principle, neither Nature nor reason have any opportunity to +exert themselves for remedy of the excesses of their premature power. +The consequences of their conduct, which in good minds (and many of +theirs are probably such) might produce penitence or amendment, are +unable to pursue the rapidity of their flight. Their prey is lodged in +England; and the cries of India are given to seas and winds, to be blown +about, in every breaking up of the monsoon, over a remote and unhearing +ocean. In India all the vices operate by which sudden fortune is +acquired: in England are often displayed, by the same persons, <a name="Page_464" id="Page_464" title="464" class="pagenum"></a>the +virtues which dispense hereditary wealth. Arrived in England, the +destroyers of the nobility and gentry of a whole kingdom will find the +best company in this nation at a board of elegance and hospitality. Here +the manufacturer and husbandman will bless the just and punctual hand +that in India has torn the cloth from the loom, or wrested the scanty +portion of rice and salt from the peasant of Bengal, or wrung from him +the very opium in which he forgot his oppressions and his oppressor. +They marry into your families; they enter into your senate; they ease +your estates by loans; they raise their value by demand; they cherish +and protect your relations which lie heavy on your patronage; and there +is scarcely an house in the kingdom that does not feel some concern and +interest that makes all reform of our Eastern government appear +officious and disgusting, and, on the whole, a most discouraging +attempt. In such an attempt you hurt those who are able to return +kindness or to resent injury. If you succeed, you save those who cannot +so much as give you thanks. All these things show the difficulty of the +work we have on hand: but they show its necessity, too. Our Indian +government is in its best state a grievance. It is necessary that the +correctives should be uncommonly vigorous, and the work of men sanguine, +warm, and even impassioned in the cause. But it is an arduous thing to +plead against abuses of a power which originates from your own country, +and affects those whom we are used to consider as strangers.</p> + +<p>I shall certainly endeavor to modulate myself to this temper; though I +am sensible that a cold style of describing actions, which appear to me +in a very affecting light, is equally contrary to the justice due <a name="Page_465" id="Page_465" title="465" class="pagenum"></a>to +the people and to all genuine human feelings about them. I ask pardon of +truth and Nature for this compliance. But I shall be very sparing of +epithets either to persons or things. It has been said, (and, with +regard to one of them, with truth,) that Tacitus and Machiavel, by their +cold way of relating enormous crimes, have in some sort appeared not to +disapprove them; that they seem a sort of professors of the art of +tyranny; and that they corrupt the minds of their readers by not +expressing the detestation and horror that naturally belong to horrible +and detestable proceedings. But we are in general, Sir, so little +acquainted with Indian details, the instruments of oppression under +which the people suffer are so hard to be understood, and even the very +names of the sufferers are so uncouth and strange to our ears, that it +is very difficult for our sympathy to fix upon these objects. I am sure +that some of us have come down stairs from the committee-room with +impressions on our minds which to us were the inevitable results of our +discoveries, yet, if we should venture to express ourselves in the +proper language of our sentiments to other gentlemen not at all prepared +to enter into the cause of them, nothing could appear more harsh and +dissonant, more violent and unaccountable, than our language and +behavior. All these circumstances are not, I confess, very favorable to +the idea of our attempting to govern India at all. But there we are; +there we are placed by the Sovereign Disposer; and we must do the best +we can in our situation. The situation of man is the preceptor of his +duty.</p> + +<p>Upon the plan which I laid down, and to which I beg leave to return, I +was considering the conduct of <a name="Page_466" id="Page_466" title="466" class="pagenum"></a>the Company to those nations which are +indirectly subject to their authority. The most considerable of the +dependent princes is the Nabob of Oude. My right honorable friend,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57" /> +<a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor" title="Mr. Fox.">[57]</a> +to whom we owe the remedial bills on your table, has already pointed out +to you, in one of the reports, the condition of that prince, and as it +stood in the time he alluded to. I shall only add a few circumstances +that may tend to awaken some sense of the manner in which the condition +of the people is affected by that of the prince, and involved in +it,—and to show you, that, when we talk of the sufferings of princes, +we do not lament the oppression of individuals,—and that in these cases +the high and the low suffer together.</p> + +<p>In the year 1779, the Nabob of Oude represented, through the British +resident at his court, that the number of Company's troops stationed in +his dominions was a main cause of his distress,—and that all those +which he was not bound by treaty to maintain should be withdrawn, as +they had greatly diminished his revenue and impoverished his country. I +will read you, if you please, a few extracts from these representations.</p> + +<p>He states, "that the country and cultivation are abandoned, and this +year in particular, from the excessive drought of the season, deductions +of many lacs having been allowed to the farmers, who are still left +unsatisfied"; and then he proceeds with a long detail of his own +distress, and that of his family and all his dependants; and adds, "that +the new-raised brigade is not only quite useless to my government, but +is, moreover, the cause of much loss both in revenues and customs. The +detached body of troops <a name="Page_467" id="Page_467" title="467" class="pagenum"></a>under European officers bring nothing <i>but +confusion to the affairs of my government, and are entirely their own +masters</i>." Mr. Middleton, Mr. Hastings's confidential resident, vouches +for the truth of this representation in its fullest extent. "I am +concerned to confess that there is too good ground for this plea. <i>The +misfortune hat been general throughout the whole of the vizier's</i> [the +Nabob of Oude] <i>dominions</i>, obvious to everybody; and so <i>fatal</i> have +been its consequences, that no person of either credit or character +would enter into engagements with government for farming the country." +He then proceeds to give strong instances of the general calamity, and +its effects.</p> + +<p>It was now to be seen what steps the Governor-General and Council took +for the relief of this distressed country, long laboring under the +vexations of men, and now stricken by the hand of God. The case of a +general famine is known to relax the severity even of the most rigorous +government.—Mr. Hastings does not deny or show the least doubt of the +fact. The representation is humble, and almost abject. On this +representation from a great prince of the distress of his subjects, Mr. +Hastings falls into a violent passion,—such as (it seems) would be +unjustifiable in any one who speaks of any part of <i>his</i> conduct. He +declares "that the <i>demands</i>, the <i>tone</i> in which they were asserted, +and the <i>season</i> in which they were made, are all equally alarming, and +appear to him to require an adequate degree of firmness in this board in +<i>opposition</i> to them." He proceeds to deal out very unreserved language +on the person and character of the Nabob and his ministers. He declares, +that, in a division between him and the Nabob, <a name="Page_468" id="Page_468" title="468" class="pagenum"></a>"<i>the strongest must +decide</i>." With regard to the urgent and instant necessity from the +failure of the crops, he says, "that <i>perhaps</i> expedients <i>may be found</i> +for affording a <i>gradual</i> relief from the burden of which he so heavily +complains, and it shall be my endeavor to seek them out": and lest he +should be suspected of too much haste to alleviate sufferings and to +remove violence, he says, "that these must be <i>gradually</i> applied, and +their complete <i>effect</i> may be <i>distant</i>; and this, I conceive, <i>is all</i> +he can claim of right."</p> + +<p>This complete effect of his lenity is distant indeed. Rejecting this +demand, (as he calls the Nabob's abject supplication,) he attributes it, +as he usually does all things of the kind, to the division in their +government, and says, "This is a powerful motive with <i>me</i> (however +inclined I might be, <i>upon any other occasion</i>, to yield to some<i>part</i> +of his demand) to give them an <i>absolute and unconditional refusal</i> upon +the present,—and even <i>to bring to punishment, if my influence can +produce that effect, those incendiaries who have endeavored to make +themselves the instruments of division between us</i>."</p> + +<p>Here, Sir, is much heat and passion,—but no more consideration of the +distress of the country, from a failure of the means of subsistence, and +(if possible) the worse evil of an useless and licentious soldiery, than +if they were the most contemptible of all trifles. A letter is written, +in consequence, in such a style of lofty despotism as I believe has +hitherto been unexampled and unheard of in the records of the East. The +troops were continued. The <i>gradual</i> relief, whose effect was to be so +<i>distant</i>, has <i>never</i> been substantially and beneficially applied,—and +the country is ruined.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, two years after, when it was too late, saw the absolute +necessity of a removal of the intoler<a name="Page_469" id="Page_469" title="469" class="pagenum"></a>able grievance of this licentious +soldiery, which, under pretence of defending it, held the country under +military execution. A new treaty and arrangement, according to the +pleasure of Mr. Hastings, took place; and this new treaty was broken in +the old manner, in every essential article. The soldiery were again +sent, and again set loose. The effect of all his manoeuvres, from which +it seems he was sanguine enough to entertain hopes, upon the state of +the country, he himself informs us,—"The event has proved the <i>reverse</i> +of these hopes, and <i>accumulation of distress, debasement, and +dissatisfaction</i> to the Nabob, and <i>disappointment and disgrace to +me</i>.—Every measure [which he had himself proposed] has been <i>so +conducted</i> as to give him cause of displeasure. There are no officers +established by which his affairs could be regularly conducted: mean, +incapable, and indigent men have been appointed. A number of the +districts without authority, and without the means of personal +protection; some of them have been murdered by the zemindars, and those +zemindars, instead of punishment, have been permitted to retain their +zemindaries, with independent authority; <i>all</i> the other zemindars +suffered to rise up in rebellion, and to insult the authority of the +sircar, without any attempt made to suppress them; and the Company's +debt, instead of being discharged by the assignments and extraordinary +sources of money provided for that <i>purpose, is likely to exceed even +the amount at which it stood at the time in which the arrangement with +his Excellency was concluded</i>." The House will smile at the resource on +which the Directors take credit as such a certainty in their curious +account.</p> + +<p>This is Mr. Hastings's own narrative of the effects <a name="Page_470" id="Page_470" title="470" class="pagenum"></a>of his own +settlement. This is the state of the country which we have been told is +in perfect peace and order; and, what is curious, he informs us, that +<i>every part of this was foretold to him in the order and manner in which +it happened</i>, at the very time he made his arrangement of men and +measures.</p> + +<p>The invariable course of the Company's policy is this: either they set +up some prince too odious to maintain himself without the necessity of +their assistance, or they soon render him odious by making him the +instrument of their government. In that case troops are bountifully sent +to him to maintain his authority. That he should have no want of +assistance, a civil gentleman, called a Resident, is kept at his court, +who, under pretence of providing duly for the pay of these troops, gets +assignments on the revenue into his hands. Under his provident +management, debts soon accumulate; new assignments are made for these +debts; until, step by step, the whole revenue, and with it the whole +power of the country, is delivered into his hands. The military do not +behold without a virtuous emulation the moderate gains of the civil +department. They feel that in a country driven to habitual rebellion by +the civil government the military is necessary; and they will not permit +their services to go unrewarded. Tracts of country are delivered over to +their discretion. Then it is found proper to convert their commanding +officers into farmers of revenue. Thus, between the well-paid civil and +well-rewarded military establishment, the situation of the natives may +be easily conjectured. The authority of the regular and lawful +government is everywhere and in every point extinguished. Disorders and +violences arise; they are repressed by <a name="Page_471" id="Page_471" title="471" class="pagenum"></a>other disorders and other +violences. Wherever the collectors of the revenue and the farming +colonels and majors move, ruin is about them, rebellion before and +behind them. The people in crowds fly out of the country; and the +frontier is guarded by lines of troops, not to exclude an enemy, but to +prevent the escape of the inhabitants.</p> + +<p>By these means, in the course of not more than four or five years, this +once opulent and flourishing country, which, by the accounts given in +the Bengal consultations, yielded more than three crore of sicca rupees, +that is, above three millions sterling, annually, is reduced, as far as +I can discover, in a matter purposely involved in the utmost perplexity, +to less than one million three hundred thousand pounds, and that exacted +by every mode of rigor that can be devised. To complete the business, +most of the wretched remnants of this revenue are mortgaged, and +delivered into the hands of the usurers at Benares (for there alone are +to be found some lingering remains of the ancient wealth of these +regions) at an interest of near <i>thirty per cent per annum</i>.</p> + +<p>The revenues in this manner failing, they seized upon the estates of +every person of eminence in the country, and, under the name of +<i>resumption</i>, confiscated their property. I wish, Sir, to be understood +universally and literally, when I assert that there is not left one man +of property and substance for his rank in the whole of these provinces, +in provinces which are nearly the extent of England and Wales taken +together: not one landholder, not one banker, not one merchant, not one +even of those who usually perish last, the <i>ultimum moriens</i> in a ruined +state, not one farmer of revenue.<a name="Page_472" id="Page_472" title="472" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>One country for a while remained, which stood as an island in the midst +of the grand waste of the Company's dominion. My right honorable friend, +in his admirable speech on moving the bill, just touched the situation, +the offences, and the punishment of a native prince, called Fizulla +Khân. This man, by policy and force, had protected himself from the +general extirpation of the Rohilla chiefs. He was secured (if that were +any security) by a treaty. It was stated to you, as it was stated by the +enemies of that unfortunate man, "that the whole of his country <i>is</i> +what the whole country of the Rohillas <i>was</i>, cultivated like a garden, +without one neglected spot in it." Another accuser says,—"Fyzoolah +Khan, though a bad soldier, [that is the true source of his misfortune,] +has approved himself a good aumil,—having, it is supposed, in the +course of a few years, at least <i>doubled</i> the population and revenue of +his country." In another part of the correspondence he is charged with +making his country an asylum for the oppressed peasants who fly from the +territories of Oude. The improvement of his revenue, arising from this +single crime, (which Mr. Hastings considers as tantamount to treason,) +is stated at an hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year.</p> + +<p>Dr. Swift somewhere says, that he who could make two blades of grass +grow where but one grew before was a greater benefactor to the human +race than all the politicians that ever existed. This prince, who would +have been deified by antiquity, who would have been ranked with Osiris, +and Bacchus, and Ceres, and the divinities most propitious to men, was, +for those very merits, by name attacked by the Company's government, as +a cheat, a robber, a traitor.<a name="Page_473" id="Page_473" title="473" class="pagenum"></a> In the same breath in which he was +accused as a rebel, he was ordered at once to furnish five thousand +horse. On delay, or (according to the technical phrase, when any +remonstrance is made to them) "<i>on evasion</i>," he was declared a violator +of treaties, and everything he had was to be taken from him. Not one +word, however, of horse in this treaty.</p> + +<p>The territory of this Fizulla Khân, Mr. Speaker, is less than the County +of Norfolk. It is an inland country, full seven hundred miles from any +seaport, and not distinguished for any one considerable branch of +manufacture whatsoever. From this territory several very considerable +sums had at several times been paid to the British resident. The demand +of cavalry, without a shadow or decent pretext of right, amounted to +three hundred thousand a year more, at the lowest computation; and it is +stated, by the last person sent to negotiate, as a demand of little use, +if it could be complied with,—but that the compliance was impossible, +as it amounted to more than his territories could supply, if there had +been no other demand upon him. Three hundred thousand pounds a year from +an inland country not so large as Norfolk!</p> + +<p>The thing most extraordinary was to hear the culprit defend himself from +the imputation of his virtues, as if they had been the blackest +offences. He extenuated the superior cultivation of his country. He +denied its population. He endeavored to prove that he had often sent +back the poor peasant that sought shelter with him.—I can make no +observation on this.</p> + +<p>After a variety of extortions and vexations, too fatiguing to you, too +disgusting to me, to go through with, they found "that they ought to be +in a bet<a name="Page_474" id="Page_474" title="474" class="pagenum"></a>ter state to warrant forcible means"; they therefore contented +themselves with a gross sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for +their present demand. They offered him, indeed, an indemnity from their +exactions in future for three hundred thousand pounds more. But he +refused to buy their securities,—pleading (probably with truth) his +poverty; but if the plea were not founded, in my opinion very wisely: +not choosing to deal any more in that dangerous commodity of the +Company's faith; and thinking it better to oppose distress and unarmed +obstinacy to uncolored exaction than to subject himself to be considered +as a cheat, if he should make a treaty in the least beneficial to +himself.</p> + +<p>Thus they executed an exemplary punishment on Fizulla Khân for the +culture of his country. But, conscious that the prevention of evils is +the great object of all good regulation, they deprived him of the means +of increasing that criminal cultivation in future, by exhausting his +coffers; and that the population of his country should no more be a +standing reproach and libel on the Company's government, they bound him +by a positive engagement not to afford any shelter whatsoever to the +farmers and laborers who should seek refuge in his territories from the +exactions of the British residents in Oude. When they had done all this +effectually, they gave him a full and complete acquittance from all +charges of rebellion, or of any intention to rebel, or of his having +originally had any interest in, or any means of, rebellion.</p> + +<p>These intended rebellions are one of the Company's standing resources. +When money has been thought to be heaped up anywhere, its owners are +universally accused of rebellion, until they are acquitted of their +<a name="Page_475" id="Page_475" title="475" class="pagenum"></a>money and their treasons at once. The money once taken, all accusation, +trial, and punishment ends. It is so settled a resource, that I rather +wonder how it comes to be omitted in the Directors' account; but I take +it for granted this omission will be supplied in their next edition.</p> + +<p>The Company stretched this resource to the full extent, when they +accused two old women, in the remotest corner of India, (who could have +no possible view or motive to raise disturbances,) of being engaged in +rebellion, with an intent to drive out the English nation, in whose +protection, purchased by money and secured by treaty, rested the sole +hope of their existence. But the Company wanted money, and the old women +<i>must</i> be guilty of a plot. They were accused of rebellion, and they +were convicted of wealth. Twice had great sums been extorted from them, +and as often had the British faith guarantied the remainder. A body of +British troops, with one of the military farmers-general at their head, +was sent to seize upon the castle in which these helpless women resided. +Their chief eunuchs, who were their agents, their guardians, protectors, +persons of high rank according to the Eastern manners, and of great +trust, were thrown into dungeons, to make them discover their hidden +treasures; and there they lie at present. The lands assigned for the +maintenance of the women were seized and confiscated. Their jewels and +effects were taken, and set up to a pretended auction in an obscure +place, and bought at such a price as the gentlemen thought proper to +give. No account has ever been transmitted of the articles or produce of +this sale. What money was obtained is unknown, or what terms were +stipulated for the maintenance of these despoiled <a name="Page_476" id="Page_476" title="476" class="pagenum"></a>and forlorn +creatures: for by some particulars it appears as if an engagement of the +kind was made.</p> + +<p>Let me here remark, once for all, that though the act of 1773 requires +that an account of all proceedings should be diligently transmitted, +that this, like all the other injunctions of the law, is totally +despised, and that half at least of the most important papers are +intentionally withheld.</p> + +<p>I wish you, Sir, to advert particularly, in this transaction, to the +quality and the numbers of the persons spoiled, and the instrument by +whom that spoil was made. These ancient matrons, called the Begums, or +Princesses, were of the first birth and quality in India: the one +mother, the other wife, of the late Nabob of Oude, Sujah Dowlah, a +prince possessed of extensive and flourishing dominions, and the second +man in the Mogul Empire. This prince (suspicious, and not unjustly +suspicious, of his son and successor) at his death committed his +treasures and his family to the British faith. That family and household +consisted of <i>two thousand women</i>, to which were added two other +seraglios of near kindred, and said to be extremely numerous, and (as I +am well informed) of about fourscore of the Nabob's children, with all +the eunuchs, the ancient servants, and a multitude of the dependants of +his splendid court. These were all to be provided, for present +maintenance and future establishment, from the lands assigned as dower, +and from the treasures which he left to these matrons, in trust for the +whole family.</p> + +<p>So far as to the objects of the spoil. The <i>instrument</i> chosen by Mr. +Hastings to despoil the relict of Sujah Dowlah was <i>her own son</i>, the +reigning Nabob of Oude. It was the pious hand of a son that was selected +to <a name="Page_477" id="Page_477" title="477" class="pagenum"></a>tear from his mother and grandmother the provision of their age, the +maintenance of his brethren, and of all the ancient household of his +father. [<i>Here a laugh, from some young members</i>.] The laugh is +<i>seasonable</i>, and the occasion decent and proper.</p> + +<p>By the last advices, something of the sum extorted remained unpaid. The +women, in despair, refuse to deliver more, unless their lands are +restored, and their ministers released from prison; but Mr. Hastings and +his council, steady to their point, and consistent to the last in their +conduct, write to the resident to stimulate the son to accomplish the +filial acts he had brought so near to their perfection. "We desire," say +they in their letter to the resident, (written so late as March last,) +"that you will inform us if any, and what means, have been taken for +recovering the balance due from the Begum [Princess] at Fyzabad; and +that, if necessary, you <i>recommend</i> it to the vizier to enforce <i>the +most effectual means</i> for that purpose."</p> + +<p>What their effectual means of enforcing demands on women of high rank +and condition are I shall show you, Sir, in a few minutes, when I +represent to you another of these plots and rebellions, which <i>always</i> +in India, though so <i>rarely</i> anywhere else, are the offspring of an easy +condition and hoarded riches.</p> + +<p>Benares is the capital city of the Indian religion. It is regarded as +holy by a particular and distinguished sanctity; and the Gentoos in +general think themselves as much obliged to visit it once in their lives +as the Mahometans to perform their pilgrimage to Mecca. By this means +that city grew great in commerce and opulence; and so effectually was it +secured by the pious veneration of that people, that <a name="Page_478" id="Page_478" title="478" class="pagenum"></a>in all wars and in +all violences of power there was so sure an asylum both for poverty and +wealth, (as it were under a divine protection,) that the wisest laws and +best assured free constitution could not better provide for the relief +of the one or the safety of the other; and this tranquillity influenced +to the greatest degree the prosperity of all the country, and the +territory of which it was the capital. The interest of money there was +not more than half the usual rate in which it stood in all other places. +The reports have fully informed you of the means and of the terms in +which this city and the territory called Ghazipoor, of which it was the +head, came under the sovereignty of the East India Company.</p> + +<p>If ever there was a subordinate dominion pleasantly circumstanced to the +superior power, it was this. A large rent or tribute, to the amount of +two hundred and sixty thousand pounds a year, was paid in monthly +instalments with the punctuality of a dividend at the Bank. If ever +there was a prince who could not have an interest in disturbances, it +was its sovereign, the Rajah Cheit Sing. He was in possession of the +capital of his religion, and a willing revenue was paid by the devout +people who resorted to him from all parts. His sovereignty and his +independence, except his tribute, was secured by every tie. His +territory was not much less than half of Ireland, and displayed in all +parts a degree of cultivation, ease, and plenty, under his frugal and +paternal management, which left him nothing to desire, either for honor +or satisfaction.</p> + +<p>This was the light in which this country appeared to almost every eye. +But Mr. Hastings beheld it askance. Mr. Hastings tells us that it was +<i>reported</i> of <a name="Page_479" id="Page_479" title="479" class="pagenum"></a>this Cheit Sing, that his father left him a million +sterling, and that he made annual accessions to the hoard. Nothing could +be so obnoxious to indigent power. So much wealth could not be innocent. +The House is fully acquainted with the unfounded and unjust requisitions +which were made upon this prince. The question has been most ably and +conclusively cleared up in one of the reports of the select committee, +and in an answer of the Court of Directors to an extraordinary +publication against them by their servant, Mr. Hastings. But I mean to +pass by these exactions as if they were perfectly just and regular; and +having admitted them, I take what I shall now trouble you with only as +it serves to show the spirit of the Company's government, the mode in +which it is carried on, and the maxims on which it proceeds.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, from whom I take the doctrine, endeavors to prove that +Cheit Sing was no sovereign prince, but a mere zemindar, or common +subject, holding land by rent. If this be granted to him, it is next to +be seen under what terms he is of opinion such a landholder, that is a +British subject, holds his life and property under the Company's +government. It is proper to understand well the doctrines of the person +whose administration has lately received such distinguished approbation +from the Company. His doctrine is,—"That the Company, or the <i>person +delegated by it</i>, holds <i>an absolute</i> authority over such +zemindars;—that he [such a subject] owes <i>an implicit</i> and <i>unreserved</i> +obedience to its authority, at the <i>forfeiture</i> even of his <i>life</i> and +<i>property</i>, at the DISCRETION of those who held <i>or fully represented</i> +the sovereign authority;—and that <i>these</i> rights are <i>fully</i> delegated +<i>to him</i>, Mr. Hastings."<a name="Page_480" id="Page_480" title="480" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Such is a British governor's idea of the condition of a great zemindar +holding under a British authority; and this kind of authority he +supposes fully delegated to <i>him</i>,—though no such delegation appears in +any commission, instruction, or act of Parliament. At his <i>discretion</i> +he may demand of the substance of any zemindar, over and above his rent +or tribute, even, what he pleases, with a sovereign authority; and if he +does not yield an <i>implicit, unreserved</i> obedience to all his commands, +he forfeits his lands, his life, and his property, at Mr. Hastings's +<i>discretion</i>. But, extravagant, and even frantic, as these positions +appear, they are less so than what I shall now read to you; for he +asserts, that, if any one should urge an exemption from more than a +stated payment, or should consider the deeds which passed between him +and the Board "as bearing <i>the quality and force</i> of a treaty between +equal states," he says, "that such an opinion is itself criminal to the +state of which he is a subject; and that he was himself amenable to its +justice, if he gave <i>countenance</i> to such a <i>belief</i>." Here is a new +species of crime invented, that of countenancing a belief,—but a belief +of what? A belief of that which the Court of Directors, Hastings's +masters, and a committee of this House, have decided as this prince's +indisputable right.</p> + +<p>But supposing the Rajah of Benares to be a mere subject, and that +subject a criminal of the highest form; let us see what course was taken +by an upright English magistrate. Did he cite this culprit before his +tribunal? Did he make a charge? Did he produce witnesses? These are not +forms; they are parts of substantial and eternal justice. No, not a word +of all this. Mr. Hastings concludes him, <a name="Page_481" id="Page_481" title="481" class="pagenum"></a><i>in his own mind</i>, to be +guilty: he makes this conclusion on reports, on hearsays, on +appearances, on rumors, on conjectures, on presumptions; and even these +never once hinted to the party, nor publicly to any human being, till +the whole business was done.</p> + +<p>But the Governor tells you his motive for this extraordinary proceeding, +so contrary to every mode of justice towards either a prince or a +subject, fairly and without disguise; and he puts into your hands the +key of his whole conduct:—"I will suppose, for a moment, that I have +acted with unwarrantable rigor towards Cheit Sing, and even with +injustice.—Let my MOTIVE be consulted. I left Calcutta, impressed with +a belief that <i>extraordinary means</i> were necessary, and those exerted +with a <i>steady hand</i>, to preserve the Company's <i>interests from sinking +under the accumulated weight which oppressed them</i>. I saw a <i>political +necessity</i> for curbing the <i>overgrown</i> power of a great member of their +dominion, and <i>for making it contribute to the relief of their pressing +exigencies</i>." This is plain speaking; after this, it is no wonder that +the Rajah's wealth and his offence, the necessities of the judge and the +opulence of the delinquent, are never separated, through the whole of +Mr. Hastings's apology. "The justice and <i>policy</i> of exacting <i>a large +pecuniary mulct</i>." The resolution "<i>to draw from his guilt the means of +relief to the Company's distresses."</i> His determination "to make him +<i>pay largely</i> for his pardon, or to execute a severe vengeance for past +delinquency." That "as his <i>wealth was great</i>, and the <i>Company's +exigencies</i> pressing, he thought it a measure of justice and policy to +exact from him a large pecuniary mulct <i>for their relief</i>."—"The sum" +(says Mr. Wheler, bearing evidence, at his desire, to his <a name="Page_482" id="Page_482" title="482" class="pagenum"></a>intentions) +"to which the Governor declared his resolution to extend his fine was +forty or fifty lacs, <i>that is, four or five hundred thousand pounds</i>; +and that, if he refused, he was to be removed from his zemindary +entirely; or by taking possession of his forts, to obtain, <i>out of the +treasure deposited in them</i>, the above sum for the Company."</p> + +<p>Crimes so convenient, crimes so politic, crimes so necessary, crimes so +alleviating of distress, can never be wanting to those who use no +process, and who produce no proofs.</p> + +<p>But there is another serious part (what is not so?) in this affair. Let +us suppose that the power for which Mr. Hastings contends, a power which +no sovereign ever did or ever can vest in any of his subjects, namely, +his own sovereign authority, to be conveyed by the act of Parliament to +any man or body of men whatsoever; it certainly was never given to Mr. +Hastings. The powers given by the act of 1773 were formal and official; +they were given, not to the Governor-General, but to the major vote of +the board, as a board, on discussion amongst themselves, in their public +character and capacity; and their acts in that character and capacity +were to be ascertained by records and minutes of council. The despotic +acts exercised by Mr. Hastings were done merely in his <i>private</i> +character; and, if they had been moderate and just, would still be the +acts of an usurped authority, and without any one of the legal modes of +proceeding which could give him competence for the most trivial exertion +of power. There was no proposition or deliberation whatsoever in +council, no minute on record, by circulation or otherwise, to authorize +his proceedings; no delega<a name="Page_483" id="Page_483" title="483" class="pagenum"></a>tion of power to impose a fine, or to take +any step to deprive the Rajah of Benares of his government, his +property, or his liberty. The minutes of consultation assign to his +journey a totally different object, duty, and destination. Mr. Wheler, +at his desire, tells us long after, that he had a confidential +conversation with him on various subjects, of which this was the +principal, in which Mr. Hastings notified to him his secret intentions; +"and that he <i>bespoke</i> his support of the measures which he intended to +pursue towards him (the Rajah)." This confidential discourse, and +<i>bespeaking</i> of support, could give him no power, in opposition to an +express act of Parliament, and the whole tenor of the orders of the +Court of Directors.</p> + +<p>In what manner the powers thus usurped were employed is known to the +whole world. All the House knows that the design on the Rajah proved as +unfruitful as it was violent. The unhappy prince was expelled, and his +more unhappy country was enslaved and ruined; but not a rupee was +acquired. Instead of treasure to recruit the Company's finances, wasted +by their wanton wars and corrupt jobs, they were plunged into a new war, +which shook their power in India to its foundation, and, to use the +Governor's own happy simile, might have dissolved it like a magic +structure, if the talisman had been broken.</p> + +<p>But the success is no part of my consideration, who should think just +the same of this business, if the spoil of one rajah had been fully +acquired, and faithfully applied to the destruction of twenty other +rajahs. Not only the arrest of the Rajah in his palace was unnecessary +and unwarrantable, and calculated to stir <a name="Page_484" id="Page_484" title="484" class="pagenum"></a>up any manly blood which +remained in his subjects, but the despotic style and the extreme +insolence of language and demeanor, used to a person of great condition +among the politest people in the world, was intolerable. Nothing +aggravates tyranny so much as contumely. <i>Quicquid superbia in +contumeliis</i> was charged by a great man of antiquity, as a principal +head of offence against the Governor-General of that day. The unhappy +people were still more insulted. A relation, but an <i>enemy</i> to the +family, a notorious robber and villain, called Ussaun Sing, kept as a +hawk in a mew, to fly upon this nation, was set up to govern there, +instead of a prince honored and beloved. But when the business of insult +was accomplished, the revenue was too serious a concern to be intrusted +to such hands. Another was set up in his place, as guardian to an +infant.</p> + +<p>But here, Sir, mark the effect of all these <i>extraordinary</i> means, of +all this policy and justice. The revenues, which had been hitherto paid +with such astonishing punctuality, fell into arrear. The new prince +guardian was deposed without ceremony,—and with as little, cast into +prison. The government of that once happy country has been in the utmost +confusion ever since such good order was taken about it. But, to +complete the contumely offered to this undone people, and to make them +feel their servitude in all its degradation and all its bitterness, the +government of their sacred city, the government of that Benares which +had been so respected by Persian and Tartar conquerors, though of the +Mussulman persuasion, that, even in the plenitude of their pride, power, +and bigotry, no magistrate of that sect entered the place, was now +delivered over by English hands to a Ma<a name="Page_485" id="Page_485" title="485" class="pagenum"></a>hometan; and an Ali Ibrahim Khân +was introduced, under the Company's authority, with power of life and +death, into the sanctuary of the Gentoo religion. After this, the taking +off a slight payment, cheerfully made by pilgrims to a chief of their +own rites, was represented as a mighty benefit.</p> + +<p>It remains only to show, through the conduct in this business, the +spirit of the Company's government, and the respect they pay towards +other prejudices, not less regarded in the East than those of religion: +I mean the reverence paid to the female sex in general, and particularly +to women of high rank and condition. During the general confusion of the +country of Ghazipoor, Panna, the mother of Cheit Sing, was lodged with +her train in a castle called Bidgé Gur, in which were likewise deposited +a large portion of the treasures of her son, or more probably her own. +To whomsoever they belonged was indifferent: for, though no charge of +rebellion was made on this woman, (which was rather singular, as it +would have cost nothing,) they were resolved to secure her with her +fortune. The castle was besieged by Major Popham.</p> + +<p>There was no great reason to apprehend that soldiers ill paid, that +soldiers who thought they had been defrauded of their plunder on former +services of the same kind, would not have been sufficiently attentive to +the spoil they were expressly come for; but the gallantry and generosity +of the profession was justly suspected, as being likely to set bounds to +military rapaciousness. The Company's first civil magistrate discovered +the greatest uneasiness lest the women should have anything preserved to +them. Terms tending to put some restraint on military <a name="Page_486" id="Page_486" title="486" class="pagenum"></a>violence were +granted. He writes a letter to Mr. Popham, referring to some letter +written before to the same effect, which I do not remember to have seen; +but it shows his anxiety on this subject. Hear himself:—"I think +<i>every</i> demand she has made on you, except that of safety and respect to +her person, is unreasonable. If the reports brought to me are true, your +rejecting her offers, or <i>any negotiation,</i> would soon obtain you the +fort upon your own terms. I apprehend she will attempt to <i>defraud the +captors of a considerable part of their booty, by being suffered to +retire without examination</i>. But this is your concern, not mine. I +should <i>be very sorry</i> that your officers and soldiers lost <i>any</i> part +of the reward to which they are so well entitled; but you must be the +best judge of the <i>promised</i> indulgence to the Ranny: what you have +engaged for I will certainly ratify; but as to suffering the Ranny to +hold the purgunna of Hurlich, or any other zemindary, without being +subject to the authority of the zemindar, <i>or any lands whatsoever</i>, or +indeed making <i>any</i> condition with her for a <i>provision</i>, I will <i>never +consent</i>."</p> + +<p>Here your Governor stimulates a rapacious and licentious soldiery to the +personal search of women, lest these unhappy creatures should avail +themselves of the protection of their sex to secure any supply for their +necessities; and he positively orders that no stipulation should be made +for any provision for them. The widow and mother of a prince, well +informed of her miserable situation, and the cause of it, a woman of +this rank became a suppliant to the domestic servant of Mr. Hastings, +(they are his own words that I read,) "imploring his intercession that +she may be relieved <a name="Page_487" id="Page_487" title="487" class="pagenum"></a><i>from the hardships and dangers of her present +situation</i>, and offering to surrender the fort, and the <i>treasure and +valuable effects</i> contained in it, provided she can be assured <i>of +safety and protection to her person and honor</i>, and to that of her +family and attendants." He is so good as to consent to this, "provided +she surrenders everything of value, with the reserve <i>only</i> of such +articles as <i>you</i> shall think <i>necessary</i> to her condition, or as you +<i>yourself</i> shall be disposed to indulge her with.—But should she refuse +to execute the promise she has made, or delay it beyond the term of +twenty-four hours, it is <i>my positive</i> injunction that you immediately +put a stop to any further intercourse or negotiation with her, and on no +pretext renew it. If she disappoints or <i>trifles</i> with me, after I have +subjected <i>my duan</i> to the disgrace of returning ineffectually, and of +course myself to discredit, I shall consider it as a <i>wanton</i> affront +and indignity <i>which I can never forgive</i>; nor will I grant her <i>any</i> +conditions whatever, but leave her exposed <i>to those</i> dangers which she +has chosen to risk, rather than trust to the clemency and generosity of +our government. I think she cannot be ignorant of these consequences, +and will not venture to incur them; and it is for this reason I place a +dependence on her offers, and have consented to send my duan to her." +The dreadful secret hinted at by the merciful Governor in the latter +part of the letter is well understood in India, where those who suffer +corporeal indignities generally expiate the offences of others with +their own blood. However, in spite of all these, the temper of the +military did, some way or other, operate. They came to terms which have +never been transmitted. It appears that a fifteenth per cent of the +plunder was reserved to the captives, of which <a name="Page_488" id="Page_488" title="488" class="pagenum"></a>the unhappy mother of +the Prince of Benares was to have a share. This ancient matron, born to +better things [<i>A laugh from certain young gentlemen]</i>—I see no cause +for this mirth. A good author of antiquity reckons among the calamities +of his time "<i>nobilissimarum fæminarum exilia et fugas</i>." I say, Sir, +this ancient lady was compelled to quit her house, with three hundred +helpless women and a multitude of children in her train. But the lower +sort in the camp, it seems, could not be restrained. They did not forget +the good lessons of the Governor-General. They were unwilling "to be +defrauded of a considerable part of their booty by suffering them to +pass without examination."—They examined them, Sir, with a vengeance; +and the sacred protection of that awful character, Mr. Hastings's +<i>maître d'hôtel,</i> could not secure them from insult and plunder. Here is +Popham's narrative of the affair:—</p> + +<p>"The Ranny came out of the fort, with her family and dependants, the +tenth, at night, owing to which such attention was not paid to her as I +wished; and I am exceedingly sorry to inform you that <i>the +licentiousness of our followers was beyond the bounds of control; for, +notwithstanding all I could do, her people were plundered on the road of +most of the things which they brought out of the fort, by which means +one of the articles of surrender has been much infringed</i>. The distress +I have felt upon this occasion cannot be expressed, and can only be +allayed by a firm performance of the other articles of the treaty, which +I shall make it my business to enforce.—The suspicions which the +officers had of treachery, and the delay made to our getting possession, +had enraged them, as well as the troops, so much, that the treaty was at +<a name="Page_489" id="Page_489" title="489" class="pagenum"></a>first regarded as void; but this determination was soon succeeded by +pity and compassion for the unfortunate besieged."—After this comes, in +his due order, Mr. Hastings; who is full of sorrow and indignation, &c., +&c., &c., according to the best and most authentic precedents +established upon such occasions.</p> + +<p>The women being thus disposed of, that is, completely despoiled, and +pathetically lamented, Mr. Hastings at length recollected the great +object of his enterprise, which, during his zeal lest the officers and +soldiers should lose any part of their reward, he seems to have +forgot,—that is to say, "to draw from the Rajah's guilt the means of +relief to the Company's distresses." This was to be the stronghold of +his defence. This compassion to the Company, he knew by experience, +would sanctify a great deal of rigor towards the natives. But the +military had distresses of their own, which they considered first. +Neither Mr. Hastings's authority, nor his supplications, could prevail +on them to assign a shilling to the claim he made on the part of the +Company. They divided the booty amongst themselves. Driven from his +claim, he was reduced to petition for the spoil as a loan. But the +soldiers were too wise to venture as a loan what the borrower claimed as +a right. In defiance of all authority, they shared among themselves +about two hundred thousand pounds sterling, besides what had been taken +from the women.</p> + +<p>In all this there is nothing wonderful. We may rest assured, that, when +the maxims of any government establish among its resources extraordinary +means, and those exerted with a strong hand, that strong hand will +provide those extraordinary means for <i>itself</i>. Whether the soldiers had +reason or not, (perhaps <a name="Page_490" id="Page_490" title="490" class="pagenum"></a>much might be said for them,) certain it is, +the military discipline of India was ruined from that moment; and the +same rage for plunder, the same contempt of subordination, which blasted +all the hopes of extraordinary means from your strong hand at Benares, +have very lately lost you an army in Mysore. This is visible enough from +the accounts in the last gazette.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt but that the country and city of Benares, now brought +into the same order, will very soon exhibit, if it does not already +display, the same appearance with those countries and cities which are +under better subjection. A great master, Mr. Hastings, has himself been +at the pains of drawing a picture of one of these countries: I mean the +province and city of Furruckabad. There is no reason to question his +knowledge of the facts; and his authority (on this point at least) is +above all exception, as well for the state of the country as for the +cause. In his minute of consultation, Mr. Hastings describes forcibly +the consequences which arise from the degradation into which we have +sunk the native government. "The total want (says he) of all order, +regularity, or authority, in his (the Nabob of Furruckabad's) +government, and to which, among other obvious causes, it may no doubt be +owing that the country of Furruckabad is become <i>almost an entire waste, +without cultivation or inhabitants</i>,—that the capital, which but a very +short time ago was distinguished as one of the most populous and opulent +commercial cities in Hindostan, at present exhibits nothing but <i>scenes +of the most wretched poverty, desolation, and misery</i>,—and that the +<i>Nabob himself</i>, though in the possession of a tract of country which, +with only common care, is notoriously capable of yielding an annual +revenue of <a name="Page_491" id="Page_491" title="491" class="pagenum"></a>between thirty and forty lacs, (three or four hundred +thousand pounds,) with <i>no military establishment</i> to maintain, scarcely +commands <i>the means of a bare subsistence</i>."</p> + +<p>This is a true and unexaggerated picture, not only of Furruckabad, but +of at least three fourths of the country which we possess, or rather lay +waste, in India. Now, Sir, the House will be desirous to know for what +purpose this picture was drawn. It was for a purpose, I will not say +laudable, but necessary: that of taking the unfortunate prince and his +country out of the hands of a sequestrator sent thither by the Nabob of +Oude, the mortal enemy of the prince thus ruined, and to protect him by +means of a British resident, who might carry his complaints to the +superior resident at Oude, or transmit them to Calcutta. But mark how +the reformer persisted in his reformation. The effect of the measure was +better than was probably expected. The prince began to be at ease; the +country began to recover; and the revenue began to be collected. These +were alarming circumstances. Mr. Hastings not only recalled the +resident, but he entered into a formal stipulation with the Nabob of +Oude never to send an English subject again to Furruckabad; and thus the +country, described as you have heard by Mr. Hastings, is given up +forever to the very persons to whom he had attributed its ruin,—that +is, to the sezawals or sequestrators of the Nabob of Oude.</p> + +<p>Such was the issue of the first attempt to relieve the distresses of the +dependent provinces. I shall close what I have to say on the condition +of the northern dependencies with the effect of the last of these +attempts. You will recollect, Sir, the account I have <a name="Page_492" id="Page_492" title="492" class="pagenum"></a>not long ago +stated to you, as given by Mr. Hastings, of the ruined condition of the +destroyer of others, the Nabob of Oude, and of the recall, in +consequence, of Hannay, Middleton, and Johnson. When the first little +sudden gust of passion against these gentlemen was spent, the sentiments +of old friendship began to revive. Some healing conferences were held +between them and the superior government. Mr. Hannay was permitted to +return to Oude; but death prevented the further advantages intended for +him, and the future benefits proposed for the country by the provident +cars of the Council-General.</p> + +<p>One of these gentlemen was accused of the grossest peculations; two of +them by Mr. Hastings himself, of what he considered as very gross +offences. The Court of Directors were informed, by the Governor-General +and Council, that a severe inquiry would be instituted against the two +survivors; and they requested that court to suspend its judgment, and to +wait the event of their proceedings. A mock inquiry has been instituted, +by which the parties could not be said to be either acquitted or +condemned. By means of the bland and conciliatory dispositions of the +charter-governors, and proper private explanations, the public inquiry +has in effect died away; the supposed peculators and destroyers of Oude +repose in all security in the bosoms of their accusers; whilst others +succeed to them to be instructed by their example.</p> + +<p>It is only to complete the view I proposed of the conduct of the Company +with regard to the dependent provinces, that I shall say <i>any</i> thing at +all of the Carnatic, which is the scene, if possible, of greater +disorder than the northern provinces. Perhaps it <a name="Page_493" id="Page_493" title="493" class="pagenum"></a>were better to say of +this centre and metropolis of abuse, whence all the rest in India and in +England diverge, from whence they are fed and methodized, what was said +of Carthage,—"<i>De Carthagine satius est silere quam parum dicere</i>." +This country, in all its denominations, is about 46,000 square miles. +It may be affirmed universally, that not one person of substance or +property, landed, commercial, or moneyed, excepting two or three +bankers, who are necessary deposits and distributors of the general +spoil, is left in all that region. In that country, the moisture, the +bounty of Heaven, is given but at a certain season. Before the era of +our influence, the industry of man carefully husbanded that gift of God. +The Gentoos preserved, with a provident and religious care, the precious +deposit of the periodical rain in reservoirs, many of them works of +royal grandeur; and from these, as occasion demanded, they fructified +the whole country. To maintain these reservoirs, and to keep up an +annual advance to the cultivators for seed and cattle, formed a +principal object of the piety and policy of the priests and rulers of +the Gentoo religion.</p> + +<p>This object required a command of money; and there was no pollam, or +castle, which in the happy days of the Carnatic was without some hoard +of treasure, by which the governors were enabled to combat with the +irregularity of the seasons, and to resist or to buy off the invasion of +an enemy. In all the cities were multitudes of merchants and bankers, +for all occasions of moneyed assistance; and on the other hand, the +native princes were in condition to obtain credit from them. The +manufacturer was paid by the return of commodities, or by imported +money, and not, as at present, in the taxes that had been <a name="Page_494" id="Page_494" title="494" class="pagenum"></a>originally +exacted from his industry. In aid of casual distress, the country was +full of choultries, which were inns and hospitals, where the traveller +and the poor were relieved. All ranks of people had their place in the +public concern, and their share in the common stock and common +prosperity. But <i>the chartered rights of men</i>, and the right which it +was thought proper to set up in the Nabob of Arcot, introduced a new +system. It was their policy to consider hoards of money as crimes,—to +regard moderate rents as frauds on the sovereign,—and to view, in the +lesser princes, any claim of exemption from more than settled tribute as +an act of rebellion. Accordingly, all the castles were, one after the +other, plundered and destroyed; the native princes were expelled; the +hospitals fell to ruin; the reservoirs of water went to decay; the +merchants, bankers, and manufacturers disappeared; and sterility, +indigence, and depopulation overspread the face of these once +flourishing provinces.</p> + +<p>The Company was very early sensible of these mischiefs, and of their +true cause. They gave precise orders, "that the native princes, called +polygars, should <i>not be extirpated</i>." "The rebellion" (so they choose +to call it) "of the polygars may, they fear, <i>with, too much justice</i>, +be attributed to the maladministration of the Nabob's collectors." "They +observe with concern, that their troops have been put to <i>disagreeable</i> +services." They might have used a stronger expression without +impropriety. But they make amends in another place. Speaking of the +polygars, the Directors say that "it was repugnant to humanity to +<i>force</i> them to such dreadful extremities <i>as they underwent";</i> that +some examples of severity <i>might</i> be <a name="Page_495" id="Page_495" title="495" class="pagenum"></a>necessary, "when they fell into +the Nabob's hands," <i>and not by the destruction of the country</i>; "that +<i>they fear</i> his government is <i>none of the mildest</i>, and that there is +<i>great oppression</i> in collecting his revenues." They state, that the +wars in which he has involved the Carnatic had been a cause of its +distresses; "that those distresses have been certainly great, but those +by <i>the Nabob's oppressions</i> they believe <i>to be greater than all</i>." +Pray, Sir, attend to the reason for their opinion that the government of +this their instrument is more calamitous to the country than the ravages +of war:—Because, say they, his oppressions are "<i>without intermission</i>; +the others are temporary;—by all which <i>oppressions</i> we believe the +Nabob has great wealth in store." From this store neither he nor they +could derive any advantage whatsoever, upon the invasion of Hyder Ali, +in the hour of their greatest calamity and dismay.</p> + +<p>It is now proper to compare these declarations with the Company's +conduct. The principal reason which they assigned against the +<i>extirpation</i> of the polygars was, that the <i>weavers</i> were protected in +their fortresses. They might have added, that the Company itself, which +stung them to death, had been warmed in the bosom of these unfortunate +princes: for, on the taking of Madras by the French, it was in their +hospitable pollams that most of the inhabitants found refuge and +protection. But notwithstanding all these orders, reasons, and +declarations, they at length gave an indirect sanction, and permitted +the use of a very direct and irresistible force, to measures which they +had over and over again declared to be false policy, cruel, inhuman, and +oppressive. Having, however, forgot all attention to the princes and the +people, <a name="Page_496" id="Page_496" title="496" class="pagenum"></a>they remembered that they had some sort of interest in the +trade of the country; and it is matter of curiosity to observe the +protection which they afforded to this their natural object.</p> + +<p>Full of anxious cares on this head, they direct, "that, in reducing the +polygars, they [their servants] were to be <i>cautious</i> not to deprive the +<i>weavers and manufacturers</i> of the protection they often met with in the +strongholds of the polygar countries"; and they write to their +instrument, the Nabob of Arcot, concerning these poor people in a most +pathetic strain. "We <i>entreat</i> your Excellency," (say they,) "in +particular, to make the manufacturers the object of your <i>tenderest +care;</i> particularly when you <i>root out</i> the polygars, you do not deprive +the <i>weavers of the protection they enjoyed under them</i>." When they root +out the protectors in favor of the oppressor, they show themselves +religiously cautious of the rights of the protected. When they extirpate +the shepherd and the shepherd's dog, they piously recommend the helpless +flock to the mercy, and even to the <i>tenderest care,</i> of the wolf. This +is the uniform strain of their policy,—strictly forbidding, and at the +same time strenuously encouraging and enforcing, every measure that can +ruin and desolate the country committed to their charge. After giving +the Company's idea of the government of this their instrument, it may +appear singular, but it is perfectly consistent with their system, that, +besides wasting for him, at two different times, the most exquisite spot +upon the earth, Tanjore, and all the adjacent countries, they have even +voluntarily put their own territory, that is, a large and fine country +adjacent to Madras, called their jaghire, wholly out of their +protection,—and have continued to farm <a name="Page_497" id="Page_497" title="497" class="pagenum"></a>their subjects, and their +duties towards these subjects, to that very Nabob whom they themselves +constantly represent as an habitual oppressor and a relentless tyrant. +This they have done without any pretence of ignorance of the objects of +oppression for which this prince has thought fit to become their renter; +for he has again and again told them that it is for the sole purpose of +exercising authority he holds the jaghire lands; and he affirms (and I +believe with truth) that he pays more for that territory than the +revenues yield. This deficiency he must make up from his other +territories; and thus, in order to furnish the means of oppressing one +part of the Carnatic, he is led to oppress all the rest.</p> + +<p>The House perceives that the livery of the Company's government is +uniform. I have described the condition of the countries indirectly, but +most substantially, under the Company's authority. And now I ask, +whether, with this map of misgovernment before me, I can suppose myself +bound by my vote to continue, upon any principles of pretended public +faith, the management of these countries in those hands. If I kept such +a faith (which in reality is no better than a <i>fides latronum</i>) with +what is called the Company, I must break the faith, the covenant, the +solemn, original, indispensable oath, in which I am bound, by the +eternal frame and constitution of things, to the whole human race.</p> + +<p>As I have dwelt so long on these who are indirectly under the Company's +administration, I will endeavor to be a little shorter upon the +countries immediately under this charter-government. These are the +Bengal provinces. The condition of these provinces is pretty fully +detailed in the Sixth and Ninth Reports, <a name="Page_498" id="Page_498" title="498" class="pagenum"></a>and in their Appendixes. I +will select only such principles and instances as are broad and general. +To your own thoughts I shall leave it to furnish the detail of +oppressions involved in them. I shall state to you, as shortly as I am +able, the conduct of the Company:—1st, towards the landed +interests;—next, the commercial interests;—3rdly, the native +government;—and lastly, to their own government.</p> + +<p>Bengal, and the provinces that are united to it, are larger than the +kingdom of France, and once contained, as France does contain, a great +and independent landed interest, composed of princes, of great lords, of +a numerous nobility and gentry, of freeholders, of lower tenants, of +religious communities, and public foundations. So early as 1769, the +Company's servants perceived the decay into which these provinces had +fallen under English administration, and they made a strong +representation upon this decay, and what they apprehended to be the +causes of it. Soon after this representation, Mr. Hastings became +President of Bengal. Instead of administering a remedy to this +melancholy disorder, upon the heels of a dreadful famine, in the year +1772, the succor which the new President and the Council lent to this +afflicted nation was—shall I be believed in relating it?—the landed +interest of a whole kingdom, of a kingdom to be compared to France, was +set up to public auction! They set up (Mr. Hastings set up) the whole +nobility, gentry, and freeholders to the highest bidder. No preference +was given to the ancient proprietors. They must bid against every +usurer, every temporary adventurer, every jobber and schemer, every +servant of every European,—or they were obliged to content themselves, +in lieu of their <a name="Page_499" id="Page_499" title="499" class="pagenum"></a>extensive domains, with their house, and such a +pension as the state auctioneers thought fit to assign. In this general +calamity, several of the first nobility thought (and in all appearance +justly) that they had better submit to the necessity of this pension, +than continue, under the name of zemindars, the objects and instruments +of a system by which they ruined their tenants and were ruined +themselves. Another reform has since come upon the back of the first; +and a pension having been assigned to these unhappy persons, in lieu of +their hereditary lands, a new scheme of economy has taken place, and +deprived them of that pension.</p> + +<p>The menial servants of Englishmen, persons (to use the emphatical phrase +of a ruined and patient Eastern chief) "<i>whose fathers they would not +have set with the dogs of their flock</i>" entered into their patrimonial +lands. Mr. Hastings's banian was, after this auction, found possessed of +territories yielding a rent of one hundred and forty thousand pounds a +year.</p> + +<p>Such an universal proscription, upon any pretence, has few examples. +Such a proscription, without even a pretence of delinquency, has none. +It stands by itself. It stands as a monument to astonish the +imagination, to confound the reason of mankind. I confess to you, when I +first came to know this business in its true nature and extent, my +surprise did a little suspend my indignation. I was in a manner +stupefied by the desperate boldness of a few obscure young men, who, +having obtained, by ways which they could not comprehend, a power of +which they saw neither the purposes nor the limits, tossed about, +subverted, and tore to pieces, as if it were in the gambols of a <a name="Page_500" id="Page_500" title="500" class="pagenum"></a>boyish +unluckiness and malice, the most established rights, and the most +ancient and most revered institutions, of ages and nations. Sir, I will +not now trouble you with any detail with regard to what they have since +done with these same lands and landholders, only to inform you that +nothing has been suffered to settle for two seasons together upon any +basis, and that the levity and inconstancy of these mock legislators +were not the least afflicting parts of the oppressions suffered under +their usurpation; nor will anything give stability to the property of +the natives, but an administration in England at once protecting and +stable. The country sustains, almost every year, the miseries of a +revolution. At present, all is uncertainty, misery, and confusion. There +is to be found through these vast regions no longer one landed man who +is a resource for voluntary aid or an object for particular rapine. Some +of them were not long since great princes; they possessed treasures, +they levied armies. There was a zemindar in Bengal, (I forget his name,) +that, on the threat of an invasion, supplied the subah of these +provinces with the loan of a million sterling. The family at this day +wants credit for a breakfast at the bazaar.</p> + +<p>I shall now say a word or two on the Company's care of the commercial +interest of those kingdoms. As it appears in the Reports that persons in +the highest stations in Bengal have adopted, as a fixed plan of policy, +the destruction of all intermediate dealers between the Company and the +manufacturer, native merchants have disappeared of course. The spoil of +the revenues is the sole capital which purchases the produce and +manufactures, and through three or four foreign companies transmits the +official gains of <a name="Page_501" id="Page_501" title="501" class="pagenum"></a>individuals to Europe. No other commerce has an +existence in Bengal. The transport of its plunder is the only traffic of +the country. I wish to refer you to the Appendix to the Ninth Report for +a full account of the manner in which the Company have protected the +commercial interests of their dominions in the East.</p> + +<p>As to the native government and the administration of justice, it +subsisted in a poor, tottering manner for some years. In the year 1781 a +total revolution took place in that establishment. In one of the usual +freaks of legislation of the Council of Bengal, the whole criminal +jurisdiction of these courts, called the Phoujdary Judicature, exercised +till then by the principal Mussulmen, was in one day, without notice, +without consultation with the magistrates or the people there, and +without communication with the Directors or Ministers here, totally +subverted. A new institution took place, by which this jurisdiction was +divided between certain English servants of the Company and the Gentoo +zemindars of the country, the latter of whom never petitioned for it, +nor, for aught that appears, ever desired this boon. But its natural use +was made of it: it was made a pretence for new extortions of money.</p> + +<p>The natives had, however, one consolation in the ruin of their +judicature: they soon saw that it fared no better with the English +government itself. That, too, after destroying every other, came to its +period. This revolution may well be rated for a most daring act, even +among the extraordinary things that have been doing in Bengal since our +unhappy acquisition of the means of so much mischief.</p> + +<p>An establishment of English government for civil <a name="Page_502" id="Page_502" title="502" class="pagenum"></a>justice, and for the +collection of revenue, was planned and executed by the President and +Council of Bengal, subject to the pleasure of the Directors, in the year +1772. According to this plan, the country was divided into six +districts, or provinces. In each of these was established a provincial +council, which administered the revenue; and of that council, one +member, by monthly rotation, presided in the courts of civil resort, +with an appeal to the council of the province, and thence to Calcutta. +In this system (whether in other respects good or evil) there were some +capital advantages. There was, in the very number of persons in each +provincial council, authority, communication, mutual check, and control. +They were obliged, on their minutes of consultation, to enter their +reasons and dissents; so that a man of diligence, of research, and +tolerable sagacity, sitting in London, might, from these materials, be +enabled to form some judgment of the spirit of what was going on on the +furthest banks of the Ganges and Burrampooter.</p> + +<p>The Court of Directors so far ratified this establishment, (which was +consonant enough to their general plan of government,) that they gave +precise orders that no alteration should be made in it without their +consent. So far from being apprised of any design against this +constitution, they had reason to conceive that on trial it had been more +and more approved by their Council-General, at least by the +Governor-General, who had planned it. At the time of the revolution, the +Council-General was nominally in two persons, virtually in one. At that +time measures of an arduous and critical nature ought to have been +forborne, even if, to the fullest council, this specific <a name="Page_503" id="Page_503" title="503" class="pagenum"></a>measure had +not been prohibited by the superior authority. It was in this very +situation that one man had the hardiness to conceive and the temerity to +execute a total revolution in the form and the persons composing the +government of a great kingdom. Without any previous step, at one stroke, +the whole constitution, of Bengal, civil and criminal, was swept away. +The counsellors were recalled from their provinces; upwards of fifty of +the principal officers of government were turned out of employ, and +rendered dependent on Mr. Hastings for their immediate subsistence, and +for all hope of future provision. The chief of each council, and one +European collector of revenue, was left in each province.</p> + +<p>But here, Sir, you may imagine a new government, of some permanent +description, was established in the place of that which had been thus +suddenly overturned. No such thing. Lest these chiefs, without councils, +should be conceived to form the ground-plan of some future government, +it was publicly declared that their continuance was only temporary and +permissive. The whole subordinate British administration of revenue was +then vested in a committee in Calcutta, all creatures of the +Governor-General; and the provincial management, under the permissive +chief, was delivered over to native officers.</p> + +<p>But that the revolution and the purposes of the revolution might be +complete, to this committee were delegated, not only the functions of +all the inferior, but, what will surprise the House, those of the +supreme administration of revenue also. Hitherto the Governor-General +and Council had, in their revenue department, administered the finances +of those king<a name="Page_504" id="Page_504" title="504" class="pagenum"></a>doms. By the new scheme they are delegated to this +committee, who are only to report their proceedings for approbation.</p> + +<p>The key to the whole transaction is given in one of the instructions to +the committee,—"that it is not necessary that they should enter +dissents." By this means the ancient plan of the Company's +administration was destroyed; but the plan of concealment was perfected. +To that moment the accounts of the revenues were tolerably clear,—or at +least means were furnished for inquiries, by which they might be +rendered satisfactory. In the obscure and silent gulf of this committee +everything is now buried. The thickest shades of night surround all +their transactions. No effectual means of detecting fraud, +mismanagement, or misrepresentation exist. The Directors, who have dared +to talk with such confidence on their revenues, know nothing about them. +What used to fill volumes is now comprised under a few dry heads on a +sheet of paper. The natives, a people habitually made to concealment, +are the chief managers of the revenue throughout the provinces. I mean +by natives such wretches as your rulers select out of them as most +fitted for their purposes. As a proper keystone to bind the arch, a +native, one Gunga Govind Sing, a man turned out of his employment by Sir +John Clavering for malversation in office, is made the corresponding +secretary, and, indeed, the great moving principle of their new board.</p> + +<p>As the whole revenue and civil administration was thus subverted, and a +clandestine government substituted in the place of it, the judicial +institution underwent a like revolution. In 1772 there had been six +courts, formed out of the six provincial <a name="Page_505" id="Page_505" title="505" class="pagenum"></a>councils. Eighteen new ones +are appointed in their place, with each a judge, taken from the <i>junior</i> +servants of the Company. To maintain these eighteen courts, a tax is +levied on the sums in litigation, of two and one half per cent on the +great, and of five per cent on the less. This money is all drawn from +the provinces to Calcutta. The chief justice (the same who stays in +defiance of a vote of this House, and of his Majesty's recall) is +appointed at once the treasurer and disposer of these taxes, levied +without any sort of authority from the Company, from the Crown, or from +Parliament.</p> + +<p>In effect, Sir, every legal, regular authority, in matters of revenue, +of political administration, of criminal law, of civil law, in many of +the most essential parts of military discipline, is laid level with the +ground; and an oppressive, irregular, capricious, unsteady, rapacious, +and peculating despotism, with a direct disavowal of obedience to any +authority at home, and without any fixed maxim, principle, or rule of +proceeding to guide them in India, is at present the state of your +charter-government over great kingdoms.</p> + +<p>As the Company has made this use of their trust, I should ill discharge +mine, if I refused to give my most cheerful vote for the redress of +these abuses, by putting the affairs of so large and valuable a part of +the interests of this nation and of mankind into some steady hands, +possessing the confidence and assured of the support of this House, +until they can be restored to regularity, order, and consistency.</p> + +<p>I have touched the heads of some of the grievances of the people and the +abuses of government. But I hope and trust you will give me credit, when +I faith<a name="Page_506" id="Page_506" title="506" class="pagenum"></a>fully assure you that I have not mentioned one fourth part of +what has come to my knowledge in your committee; and further, I have +full reason to believe that not one fourth part of the abuses are come +to my knowledge, by that or by any other means. Pray consider what I +have said only as an index to direct you in your inquiries.</p> + +<p>If this, then, Sir, has been the use made of the trust of political +powers, internal and external, given by you in the charter, the next +thing to be seen is the conduct of the Company with regard to the +commercial trust. And here I will make a fair offer:—If it can be +proved that they have acted wisely, prudently, and frugally, as +merchants, I shall pass by the whole mass of their enormities as +statesmen. That they have not done this their present condition is proof +sufficient. Their distresses are said to be owing to their wars. This is +not wholly true. But if it were, is not that readiness to engage in +wars, which distinguishes them, and for which the Committee of Secrecy +has so branded their politics, founded on the falsest principles of +mercantile speculation?</p> + +<p>The principle of buying cheap and selling dear is the first, the great +foundation of mercantile dealing. Have they ever attended to this +principle? Nay, for years have they not actually authorized in their +servants a total indifference as to the prices they were to pay?</p> + +<p>A great deal of strictness in driving bargains for whatever we contract +is another of the principles of mercantile policy. Try the Company by +that test. Look at the contracts that are made for them. Is the Company +so much as a good commissary to their own armies? I engage to select for +you, out of the <a name="Page_507" id="Page_507" title="507" class="pagenum"></a>innumerable mass of their dealings, all conducted very +nearly alike, one contract only the excessive profits on which during a +short term would pay the whole of their year's dividend. I shall +undertake to show that upon two others the inordinate profits given, +with the losses incurred in order to secure those profits, would pay a +year's dividend more.</p> + +<p>It is a third property of trading-men to see that their clerks do not +divert the dealings of the master to their own benefit. It was the other +day only, when their Governor and Council taxed the Company's investment +with a sum of fifty thousand pounds, as an inducement to persuade only +seven members of their Board of Trade to give their <i>honor</i> that they +would abstain from such profits upon that investment, as they must have +violated their <i>oaths</i>, if they had made at all.</p> + +<p>It is a fourth quality of a merchant to be exact in his accounts. What +will be thought, when you have fully before you the mode of accounting +made use of in the Treasury of Bengal? I hope you will have it soon. +With regard to one of their agencies, when it came to the material part, +the prime cost of the goods on which a commission of fifteen per cent +was allowed, to the astonishment of the factory to whom the commodities +were sent, the Accountant-General reports that he did not think himself +authorized to call for <i>vouchers</i> relative to this and other +particulars,—because the agent was upon his <i>honor</i> with regard to +them. A new principle of account upon honor seems to be regularly +established in their dealings and their treasury, which in reality +amounts to an entire annihilation of the principle of all accounts.</p> + +<p>It is a fifth property of a merchant, who does not <a name="Page_508" id="Page_508" title="508" class="pagenum"></a>meditate a +fraudulent bankruptcy, to calculate his probable profits upon the money +he takes up to vest in business. Did the Company, when they bought goods +on bonds bearing eight per cent interest, at ten and even twenty per +cent discount, even ask themselves a question concerning the possibility +of advantage from dealing on these terms?</p> + +<p>The last quality of a merchant I shall advert to is the taking care to +be properly prepared, in cash or goods in the ordinary course of sale, +for the bills which are drawn on them. Now I ask, whether they have ever +calculated the clear produce of any given sales, to make them tally with +the four million of bills which are come and coming upon them, so as at +the proper periods to enable the one to liquidate the other. No, they +have not. They are now obliged to borrow money of their own servants to +purchase their investment. The servants stipulate five per cent on the +capital they advance, if their bills should not be paid at the time when +they become due; and the value of the rupee on which they charge this +interest is taken at two shillings and a penny. Has the Company ever +troubled themselves to inquire whether their sales can bear the payment +of that interest, and at that rate of exchange? Have they once +considered the dilemma in which they are placed,—the ruin of their +credit in the East Indies, if they refuse the bills,—the ruin of their +credit and existence in England, if they accept them?</p> + +<p>Indeed, no trace of equitable government is found in their politics, not +one trace of commercial principle in their mercantile dealing: and hence +is the deepest and maturest wisdom of Parliament demanded, and the best +resources of this kingdom must be <a name="Page_509" id="Page_509" title="509" class="pagenum"></a>strained, to restore them,—that is, +to restore the countries destroyed by the misconduct of the Company, and +to restore the Company itself, ruined by the consequences of their plans +for destroying what they were bound to preserve.</p> + +<p>I required, if you remember, at my outset, a proof that these abuses +were habitual. But surely this is not necessary for me to consider as a +separate head; because I trust I have made it evident beyond a doubt, in +considering the abuses themselves, that they are regular, permanent, and +systematical.</p> + +<p>I am now come to my last condition, without which, for one, I will never +readily lend my hand to the destruction of any established government, +which is,—that, in its present state, the government of the East India +Company is absolutely incorrigible.</p> + +<p>Of this great truth I think there can be little doubt, after all that +has appeared in this House. It is so very clear, that I must consider +the leaving any power in their hands, and the determined resolution to +continue and countenance every mode and every degree of peculation, +oppression, and tyranny, to be one and the same thing. I look upon that +body incorrigible, from the fullest consideration both of their uniform +conduct and their present real and virtual constitution.</p> + +<p>If they had not constantly been apprised of all the enormities committed +in India under their authority, if this state of things had been as much +a discovery to them as it was to many of us, we might flatter ourselves +that the detection of the abuses would lead to their reformation. I will +go further. If the Court of Directors had not uniformly condemned every +act which this House or any of its committees had <a name="Page_510" id="Page_510" title="510" class="pagenum"></a>condemned, if the +language in which they expressed their disapprobation against enormities +and their authors had not been much more vehement and indignant than any +ever used in this House, I should entertain some hopes. If they had not, +on the other hand, as uniformly commended all their servants who had +done their duty and obeyed their orders as they had heavily censured +those who rebelled, I might say, These people have been in an error, and +when they are sensible of it they will mend. But when I reflect on the +uniformity of their support to the objects of their uniform censure, and +the state of insignificance and disgrace to which all of those have been +reduced whom they approved, and that even utter ruin and premature death +have been among the fruits of their favor, I must be convinced, that in +this case, as in all others, hypocrisy is the only vice that never can +be cured.</p> + +<p>Attend, I pray you, to the situation and prosperity of Benfield, +Hastings, and others of that sort. The last of these has been treated by +the Company with an asperity of reprehension that has no parallel. They +lament "that the power of disposing of their property for perpetuity +should fall into such hands." Yet for fourteen years, with little +interruption, he has governed all their affairs, of every description, +with an absolute sway. He has had himself the means of heaping up +immense wealth; and during that whole period, the fortunes of hundreds +have depended on his smiles and frowns. He himself tells you he is +incumbered with two hundred and fifty young gentlemen, some of them of +the best families in England, all of whom aim at returning with vast +fortunes to Europe in the prime of life. He has, then, two hun<a name="Page_511" id="Page_511" title="511" class="pagenum"></a>dred and +fifty of your children as his hostages for your good behavior; and +loaded for years, as he has been, with the execrations of the natives, +with the censures of the Court of Directors, and struck and blasted with +resolutions of this House, he still maintains the most despotic power +ever known in India. He domineers with an overbearing sway in the +assemblies of his pretended masters; and it is thought in a degree rash +to venture to name his offences in this House, even as grounds of a +legislative remedy.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, consider the fate of those who have met with the +applauses of the Directors. Colonel Monson, one of the best of men, had +his days shortened by the applauses, destitute of the support, of the +Company. General Clavering, whose panegyric was made in every dispatch +from England, whose hearse was bedewed with the tears and hung round +with the eulogies of the Court of Directors, burst an honest and +indignant heart at the treachery of those who ruined him by their +praises. Uncommon patience and temper supported Mr. Francis a while +longer under the baneful influence of the commendation of the Court of +Directors. His health, however, gave way at length; and in utter +despair, he returned to Europe. At his return, the doors of the India +House were shut to this man who had been the object of their constant +admiration. He has, indeed, escaped with life; but he has forfeited all +expectation of credit, consequence, party, and following. He may well +say, "<i>Me nemo ministro fur erit, atque ideo nulli comes exeo</i>." This +man, whose deep reach of thought, whose large legislative conceptions, +and whose grand plans of policy make the most shining <a name="Page_512" id="Page_512" title="512" class="pagenum"></a>part of our +Reports, from whence we have all learned our lessons, if we have learned +any good ones,—this man, from whose materials those gentlemen who have +least acknowledged it have yet spoken as from a brief,—this man, driven +from his employment, discountenanced by the Directors, has had no other +reward, and no other distinction, but that inward "sunshine of the soul" +which a good conscience can always bestow upon itself. He has not yet +had so much as a good word, but from a person too insignificant to make +any other return for the means with which he has been furnished for +performing his share of a duty which is equally urgent on us all.</p> + +<p>Add to this, that, from the highest in place to the lowest, every +British subject, who, in obedience to the Company's orders, has been +active in the discovery of peculations, has been ruined. They have been +driven from India. When they made their appeal at home, they were not +heard; when they attempted to return, they were stopped. No artifice of +fraud, no violence of power, has been omitted to destroy them in +character as well as in fortune.</p> + +<p>Worse, far worse, has been the fate of the poor creatures, the natives +of India, whom the hypocrisy of the Company has betrayed into complaint +of oppression and discovery of peculation. The first women in Bengal, +the Ranny of Rajeshahi, the Ranny of Burdwan, the Ranny of Ambooah, by +their weak and thoughtless trust in the Company's honor and protection, +are utterly ruined: the first of these women, a person of princely rank, +and once of correspondent fortune, who paid above two hundred thousand a +year quit-rent to the state, is, according to very credible information, +so completely beggared as to stand in need <a name="Page_513" id="Page_513" title="513" class="pagenum"></a>of the relief of alms. +Mahomed Reza Khân, the second Mussulman in Bengal, for having been +distinguished by the ill-omened honor of the countenance and protection +of the Court of Directors, was, without the pretence of any inquiry +whatsoever into his conduct, stripped of all his employments, and +reduced to the lowest condition. His ancient rival for power, the Rajah +Nundcomar, was, by an insult on everything which India holds respectable +and sacred, hanged in the face of all his nation by the judges you sent +to protect that people: hanged for a pretended crime, upon an <i>ex post +facto</i> British act of Parliament, in the midst of his evidence against +Mr. Hastings. The accuser they saw hanged. The culprit, without +acquittal or inquiry, triumphs on the ground of that murder: a murder, +not of Nundcomar only, but of all living testimony, and even of evidence +yet unborn. From that time not a complaint has been heard from the +natives against their governors. All the grievances of India have found +a complete remedy.</p> + +<p>Men will not look to acts of Parliament, to regulations, to +declarations, to votes, and resolutions. No, they are not such fools. +They will ask, What is the road to power, credit, wealth, and honors? +They will ask, What conduct ends in neglect, disgrace, poverty, exile, +prison, and gibbet? These will teach them the course which they are to +follow. It is your distribution of these that will give the character +and tone to your government. All the rest is miserable grimace.</p> + +<p>When I accuse the Court of Directors of this habitual treachery in the +use of reward and punishment, I do not mean to include all the +individuals in that court. There have been, Sir, very frequently men <a name="Page_514" id="Page_514" title="514" class="pagenum"></a>of +the greatest integrity and virtue amongst them; and the contrariety in +the declarations and conduct of that court has arisen, I take it, from +this,—that the honest Directors have, by the force of matter of fact on +the records, carried the reprobation of the evil measures of the +servants in India. This could not be prevented, whilst these records +stared them in the face; nor were the delinquents, either here or there, +very solicitous about their reputation, as long as they were able to +secure their power. The agreement of their partisans to censure them +blunted for a while the edge of a severe proceeding. It obtained for +them a character of impartiality, which enabled them to recommend with +some sort of grace, what will always carry a plausible appearance, those +treacherous expedients called moderate measures. Whilst these were under +discussion, new matter of complaint came over, which seemed to antiquate +the first. The same circle was here trod round once more; and thus +through years they proceeded in a compromise of censure for punishment, +until, by shame and despair, one after another, almost every man who +preferred his duty to the Company to the interest of their servants has +been driven from that court.</p> + +<p>This, Sir, has been their conduct: and it has been the result of the +alteration which was insensibly made in their constitution. The change +was made insensibly; but it is now strong and adult, and as public and +declared as it is fixed beyond all power of reformation: so that there +is none who hears me that is not as certain as I am, that the Company, +in the sense in which it was formerly understood, has no existence.</p> + +<p>The question is not, what injury you may do to the <a name="Page_515" id="Page_515" title="515" class="pagenum"></a>proprietors of India +stock; for there are no such men to be injured. If the active, ruling +part of the Company, who form the General Court, who fill the offices +and direct the measures, (the rest tell for nothing,) were persons who +held their stock as a means of their subsistence, who in the part they +took were only concerned in the government of India for the rise or fall +of their dividend, it would be indeed a defective plan of policy. The +interest of the people who are governed by them would not be their +primary object,—perhaps a very small part of their consideration at +all. But then they might well be depended on, and perhaps more than +persons in other respects preferable, for preventing the peculations of +their servants to their own prejudice. Such a body would not easily have +left their trade as a spoil to the avarice of those who received their +wages. But now things are totally reversed. The stock is of no value, +whether it be the qualification of a Director or Proprietor; and it is +impossible that it should. A Director's qualification may be worth about +two thousand five hundred pounds,—and the interest, at eight per cent, +is about one hundred and sixty pounds a year. Of what value is that, +whether it rise to ten, or fall to six, or to nothing; to him whose son, +before he is in Bengal two months, and before he descends the stops of +the Council-Chamber, sells the grant of a single contract for forty +thousand pounds? Accordingly, the stock is bought up in qualifications. +The vote is not to protect the stock, but the stock is bought to acquire +the vote; and the end of the vote is to cover and support, against +justice, some man of power who has made an obnoxious fortune in India, +or to maintain in power those who are actually employing it in the +acquisition <a name="Page_516" id="Page_516" title="516" class="pagenum"></a>of such a fortune,—and to avail themselves, in return, of +his patronage, that he may shower the spoils of the East, "barbaric +pearl and gold," on them, their families, and dependants. So that all +the relations of the Company are not only changed, but inverted. The +servants in India are not appointed by the Directors, but the Directors +are chosen by them. The trade is carried on with their capitals. To them +the revenues of the country are mortgaged. The seat of the supreme power +is in Calcutta. The house in Leadenhall Street is nothing more than a +'change for their agents, factors, and deputies to meet in, to take care +of their affairs and support their interests,—and this so avowedly, +that we see the known agents of the delinquent servants marshalling and +disciplining their forces, and the prime spokesmen in all their +assemblies.</p> + +<p>Everything has followed in this order, and according to the natural +train of events. I will close what I have to say on the incorrigible +condition of the Company, by stating to you a few facts that will leave +no doubt of the obstinacy of that corporation, and of their strength +too, in resisting the reformation of their servants. By these facts you +will be enabled to discover the sole grounds upon which they are +tenacious of their charter.</p> + +<p>It is now more than two years, that upon account of the gross abuses and +ruinous situation of the Company's affairs, (which occasioned the cry of +the whole world long before it was taken up here,) that we instituted +two committees to inquire into the mismanagements by which the Company's +affairs had been brought to the brink of ruin. These inquiries had been +pursued with unremitting diligence, and a great body of facts was +collected and printed for general information.<a name="Page_517" id="Page_517" title="517" class="pagenum"></a> In the result of those +inquiries, although the committees consisted of very different +descriptions, they were unanimous. They joined in censuring the conduct +of the Indian administration, and enforcing the responsibility upon two +men, whom this House, in consequence of these reports, declared it to be +the duty of the Directors to remove from their stations, and recall to +Great Britain,—"<i>because they had acted in a manner repugnant to the +honor and policy of this nation, and thereby brought great calamities on +India and enormous expenses on the East India Company</i>."</p> + +<p>Here was no attempt on the charter. Here was no question of their +privileges. To vindicate their own honor, to support their own +interests, to enforce obedience to their own orders,—these were the +sole object of the monitory resolution of this House. But as soon as the +General Court could assemble, they assembled to demonstrate who they +really were. Regardless of the proceedings of this House, they ordered +the Directors not to carry into effect any resolution they might come to +for the removal of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Hornby. The Directors, still +retaining some shadow of respect to this House, instituted an inquiry +themselves, which continued from June to October, and, after an +attentive perusal and full consideration of papers, resolved to take +steps for removing the persons who had been the objects of our +resolution, but not without a violent struggle against evidence. Seven +Directors went so far as to enter a protest against the vote of their +court. Upon this the General Court takes the alarm: it reassembles; it +orders the Directors to rescind their resolution, that is, not to recall +Mr. Hastings and Mr. Hornby, and to despise the resolution of the House +<a name="Page_518" id="Page_518" title="518" class="pagenum"></a>of Commons. Without so much as the pretence of looking into a single +paper, without the formality of instituting any committee of inquiry, +they superseded all the labors of their own Directors and of this House.</p> + +<p>It will naturally occur to ask, how it was possible that they should not +attempt some sort of examination into facts, as a color for their +resistance to a public authority proceeding so very deliberately, and +exerted, apparently at least, in favor of their own. The answer, and the +only answer which can be given, is, that they were afraid that their +true relation should be mistaken. They were afraid that their patrons +and masters in India should attribute their support of them to an +opinion of their cause, and not to an attachment to their power. They +were afraid it should be suspected that they did not mean blindly to +support them in the use they made of that power. They determined to show +that they at least were set against reformation: that they were firmly +resolved to bring the territories, the trade, and the stock of the +Company to ruin, rather than be wanting in fidelity to their nominal +servants and real masters, in the ways they took to their private +fortunes.</p> + +<p>Even since the beginning of this session, the same act of audacity was +repeated, with the same circumstances of contempt of all the decorum of +inquiry on their part, and of all the proceedings of this House. They +again made it a request to their favorite, and your culprit, to keep his +post,—and thanked and applauded him, without calling for a paper which +could afford light into the merit or demerit of the transaction, and +without giving themselves a moment's time to consider, or even to +understand, the <a name="Page_519" id="Page_519" title="519" class="pagenum"></a>articles of the Mahratta peace. The fact is, that for a +long time there was a struggle, a faint one indeed, between the Company +and their servants. But it is a struggle no longer. For some time the +superiority has been decided. The interests abroad are become the +settled preponderating weight both in the Court of Proprietors and the +Court of Directors. Even the attempt you have made to inquire into their +practices and to reform abuses has raised and piqued them to a far more +regular and steady support. The Company has made a common cause and +identified themselves with the destroyers of India. They have taken on +themselves all that mass of enormity; they are supporting what you have +reprobated; those you condemn they applaud, those you order home to +answer for their conduct they request to stay, and thereby encourage to +proceed in their practices. Thus the servants of the East India Company +triumph, and the representatives of the people of Great Britain are +defeated.</p> + +<p>I therefore conclude, what you all conclude, that this body, being +totally perverted from the purposes of its institution, is utterly +incorrigible; and because they are incorrigible, both in conduct and +constitution, power ought to be taken out of their hands,—just on the +same principles on which have been made all the just changes and +revolutions of government that have taken place since the beginning of +the world.</p> + +<p>I will now say a few words to the general principle of the plan which is +set up against that of my right honorable friend. It is to recommit the +government of India to the Court of Directors. Those who would commit +the reformation of India to the destroyers of <a name="Page_520" id="Page_520" title="520" class="pagenum"></a>it are the enemies to +that reformation. They would make a distinction between Directors and +Proprietors, which, in the present state of things, does not, cannot +exist. But a right honorable gentleman says, he would keep the present +government of India in the Court of Directors, and would, to curb them, +provide salutary regulations. Wonderful! That is, he would appoint the +old offenders to correct the old offences; and he would render the +vicious and the foolish wise and virtuous by salutary regulations. He +would appoint the wolf as guardian of the sheep; but he has invented a +curious muzzle, by which this protecting wolf shall not be able to open +his jaws above an inch or two at the utmost. Thus his work is finished. +But I tell the right honorable gentleman, that controlled depravity is +not innocence, and that it is not the labor of delinquency in chains +that will correct abuses. Will these gentlemen of the direction +animadvert on the partners of their own guilt? Never did a serious plan +of amending of any old tyrannical establishment propose the authors and +abettors of the abuses as the reformers of them. If the undone people of +India see their old oppressors in confirmed power, even by the +reformation, they will expect nothing but what they will certainly +feel,—continuance, or rather an aggravation, of all their former +sufferings. They look to the seat of power, and to the persons who fill +it; and they despise those gentlemen's regulations as much as the +gentlemen do who talk of them.</p> + +<p>But there is a cure for everything. Take away, say they, the Court of +Proprietors, and the Court of Directors will do their duty. Yes,—as +they have done it hitherto. That the evils in India have solely <a name="Page_521" id="Page_521" title="521" class="pagenum"></a>arisen +from the Court of Proprietors is grossly false. In many of them the +Directors were heartily concurring; in most of them they were +encouraging, and sometimes commanding; in all they were conniving.</p> + +<p>But who are to choose this well-regulated and reforming Court of +Directors?—Why, the very Proprietors who are excluded from all +management, for the abuse of their power. They will choose, undoubtedly, +out of themselves, men like themselves; and those who are most forward +in resisting your authority, those who are most engaged in faction or +interest with the delinquents abroad, will be the objects of their +selection. But gentlemen say, that, when this choice is made, the +Proprietors are not to interfere in the measures of the Directors, +whilst those Directors are busy in the control of their common patrons +and masters in India. No, indeed, I believe they will not desire to +interfere. They will choose those whom they know may be trusted, safely +trusted, to act in strict conformity to their common principles, +manners, measures, interests, and connections. They will want neither +monitor nor control. It is not easy to choose men to act in conformity +to a public interest against their private; but a sure dependence may be +had on those who are chosen to forward their private interest at the +expense of the public. But if the Directors should slip, and deviate +into rectitude, the punishment is in the hands of the General Court, and +it will surely be remembered to them at their next election.</p> + +<p>If the government of India wants no reformation, but gentlemen are +amusing themselves with a theory, conceiving a more democratic or +aristocratic mode of government for these dependencies, or if <a name="Page_522" id="Page_522" title="522" class="pagenum"></a>they are +in a dispute only about patronage, the dispute is with me of so little +concern that I should not take the pains to utter an affirmative or +negative to any proposition in it. If it be only for a theoretical +amusement that they are to propose a bill, the thing is at best +frivolous and unnecessary. But if the Company's government is not only +full of abuse, but is one of the most corrupt and destructive tyrannies +that probably ever existed in the world, (as I am sure it is,) what a +cruel mockery would it be in me, and in those who think like me, to +propose this kind of remedy for this kind of evil!</p> + +<p>I now come to the third objection,—that this bill will increase the +influence of the crown. An honorable gentleman has demanded of me, +whether I was in earnest when I proposed to this House a plan for the +reduction of that influence. Indeed, Sir, I was much, very much, in +earnest my heart was deeply concerned in it; and I hope the public has +not lost the effect of it. How far my judgment was right, for what +concerned personal favor and consequence to myself, I shall not presume +to determine; nor is its effect upon <i>me</i>, of any moment. But as to this +bill, whether it increases the influence of the crown, or not, is a +question I should be ashamed to ask. If I am not able to correct a +system of oppression and tyranny, that goes to the utter ruin of thirty +millions of my fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, but by some +increase to the influence of the crown, I am ready here to declare that +I, who have been active to reduce it, shall be at least as active and +strenuous to restore it again. I am no lover of names; I contend for the +substance of good and protecting government, let it come from what +quarter it will.<a name="Page_523" id="Page_523" title="523" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>But I am not obliged to have recourse to this expedient. Much, very +much, the contrary. I am sure that the influence of the crown will by no +means aid a reformation of this kind, which can neither be originated +nor supported but by the uncorrupt public virtue of the representatives +of the people of England. Let it once get into the ordinary course of +administration, and to me all hopes of reformation are gone. I am far +from knowing or believing that this bill will increase the influence of +the crown. We all know that the crown has ever had some influence in the +Court of Directors, and that it has been extremely increased by the acts +of 1773 and 1780. The gentlemen who, as part of their reformation, +propose "a more active control on the part of the crown," which is to +put the Directors under a Secretary of State specially named for that +purpose, must know that their project will increase it further. But that +old influence has had, and the new will have, incurable inconveniences, +which cannot happen under the Parliamentary establishment proposed in +this bill. An honorable gentleman,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58" /> +<a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor" title="Governor Johnstone.">[58]</a> not now in his place, but who is +well acquainted with the India Company, and by no means a friend to this +bill, has told you that a ministerial influence has always been +predominant in that body,—and that to make the Directors pliant to +their purposes, ministers generally caused persons meanly qualified to +be chosen Directors. According to his idea, to secure subserviency, they +submitted the Company's affairs to the direction of incapacity. This was +to ruin the Company in order to govern it. This was certainly influence +in the very worst form in which it could <a name="Page_524" id="Page_524" title="524" class="pagenum"></a>appear. At best it was +clandestine and irresponsible. Whether this was done so much upon system +as that gentleman supposes, I greatly doubt. But such in effect the +operation of government on that court unquestionably was; and such, +under a similar constitution, it will be forever. Ministers must be +wholly removed from the management of the affairs of India, or they will +have an influence in its patronage. The thing is inevitable. Their +scheme of a new Secretary of State, "with a more vigorous control," is +not much better than a repetition of the measure which we know by +experience will not do. Since the year 1773 and the year 1780, the +Company has been under the control of the Secretary of State's office, +and we had then three Secretaries of State. If more than this is done, +then they annihilate the direction which they pretend to support; and +they augment the influence of the crown, of whose growth they affect so +great an horror. But in truth this scheme of reconciling a direction +really and truly deliberative with an office really and substantially +controlling is a sort of machinery that can be kept in order but a very +short time. Either the Directors will dwindle into clerks, or the +Secretary of State, as hitherto has been the course, will leave +everything to them, often through design, often through neglect. If both +should affect activity, collision, procrastination, delay, and, in the +end, utter confusion, must ensue.</p> + +<p>But, Sir, there is one kind of influence far greater than that of the +nomination to office. This gentlemen in opposition have totally +overlooked, although it now exists in its full vigor; and it will do so, +upon their scheme, in at least as much force as it does <a name="Page_525" id="Page_525" title="525" class="pagenum"></a>now. That +influence this bill cuts up by the roots. I mean the <i>influence of +protection</i>. I shall explain myself.—The office given to a young man +going to India is of trifling consequence. But he that goes out an +insignificant boy in a few years returns a great nabob. Mr. Hastings +says he has two hundred and fifty of that kind of raw materials, who +expect to be speedily manufactured into the merchantable quality I +mention. One of these gentlemen, suppose, returns hither laden with +odium and with riches. When he comes to England, he comes as to a +prison, or as to a sanctuary; and either is ready for him, according to +his demeanor. What is the influence in the grant of any place in India, +to that which is acquired by the protection or compromise with such +guilt, and with the command of such riches, under the dominion of the +hopes and fears which power is able to hold out to every man in that +condition? That man's whole fortune, half a million perhaps, becomes an +instrument of influence, without a shilling of charge to the civil list: +and the influx of fortunes which stand in need of this protection is +continual. It works both ways: it influences the delinquent, and it may +corrupt the minister. Compare the influence acquired by appointing, for +instance, even a Governor-General, and that obtained by protecting him. +I shall push this no further. But I wish gentlemen to roll it a little +in their own minds.</p> + +<p>The bill before you cuts off this source of influence. Its design and +main scope is, to regulate the administration of India upon the +principles of a court of judicature,—and to exclude, as far as human +prudence can exclude, all possibility of a corrupt partial<a name="Page_526" id="Page_526" title="526" class="pagenum"></a>ity, in +appointing to office, or supporting in office, or covering from inquiry +and punishment, any person who has abused or shall abuse his authority. +At the board, as appointed and regulated by this bill, reward and +punishment cannot be shifted and reversed by a whisper. That commission +becomes fatal to cabal, to intrigue, and to secret representation, those +instruments of the ruin of India. He that cuts off the means of +premature fortune, and the power of protecting it when acquired, strikes +a deadly blow at the great fund, the bank, the capital stock of Indian +influence, which cannot be vested anywhere, or in any hands, without +most dangerous consequences to the public.</p> + +<p>The third and contradictory objection is, that this bill does not +increase the influence of the crown; on the contrary, that the just +power of the crown will be lessened, and transferred to the use of a +party, by giving the patronage of India to a commission nominated by +Parliament and independent of the crown. The contradiction is glaring, +and it has been too well exposed to make it necessary for me to insist +upon it. But passing the contradiction, and taking it without any +relation, of all objections that is the most extraordinary. Do not +gentlemen know that the crown has not at present the grant of a single +office under the Company, civil or military, at home or abroad? So far +as the crown is concerned, it is certainly rather a gainer; for the +vacant offices in the new commission are to be filled up by the king.</p> + +<p>It is argued, as a part of the bill derogatory to the prerogatives of +the crown, that the commissioners named in the bill are to continue for +a short term of years, too short in my opinion,—and because, dur<a name="Page_527" id="Page_527" title="527" class="pagenum"></a>ing +that time, they are not at the mercy of every predominant faction of the +court. Does not this objection lie against the present Directors,—none +of whom are named by the crown, and a proportion of whom hold for this +very term of four years? Did it not lie against the Governor-General and +Council named in the act of 1773,—who were invested by name, as the +present commissioners are to be appointed in the body of the act of +Parliament, who were to hold their places for a term of years, and were +not removable at the discretion of the crown? Did it not lie against the +reappointment, in the year 1780, upon the very same terms? Yet at none +of these times, whatever other objections the scheme might be liable to, +was it supposed to be a derogation to the just prerogative of the crown, +that a commission created by act of Parliament should have its members +named by the authority which called it into existence. This is not the +disposal by Parliament of any office derived from the authority of the +crown, or now disposable by that authority. It is so far from being +anything new, violent, or alarming, that I do not recollect, in any +Parliamentary commission, down to the commissioners of the land-tax, +that it has ever been otherwise.</p> + +<p>The objection of the tenure for four years is an objection to all places +that are not held during pleasure; but in that objection I pronounce the +gentlemen, from my knowledge of their complexion and of their +principles, to be perfectly in earnest. The party (say these gentlemen) +of the minister who proposes this scheme will be rendered powerful by +it; for he will name his party friends to the commission. This objection +against party is a party objection; and in <a name="Page_528" id="Page_528" title="528" class="pagenum"></a>this, too, these gentlemen +are perfectly serious. They see, that, if, by any intrigue, they should +succeed to office, they will lose the <i>clandestine</i> patronage, the true +instrument of clandestine influence, enjoyed in the name of subservient +Directors, and of wealthy, trembling Indian delinquents. But as often as +they are beaten off this ground, they return to it again. The minister +will name his friends, and persons of his own party. Whom should he +name? Should he name his adversaries? Should he name those whom he +cannot trust? Should he name those to execute his plans who are the +declared enemies to the principles of his reform? His character is here +at stake. If he proposes for his own ends (but he never will propose) +such names as, from their want of rank, fortune, character, ability, or +knowledge, are likely to betray or to fall short of their trust, he is +in an independent House of Commons,—in an House of Commons which has, +by its own virtue, destroyed the instruments of Parliamentary +subservience. This House of Commons would not endure the sound of such +names. He would perish by the means which he is supposed to pursue for +the security of his power. The first pledge he must give of his +sincerity in this great reform will be in the confidence which ought to +be reposed in those names.</p> + +<p>For my part, Sir, in this business I put all indirect considerations +wholly out of my mind. My sole question, on each clause of the bill, +amounts to this:—Is the measure proposed required by the necessities of +India? I cannot consent totally to lose sight of the real wants of the +people who are the objects of it, and to hunt after every matter of +party squabble that may be started on the several provis<a name="Page_529" id="Page_529" title="529" class="pagenum"></a>ions. On the +question of the duration of the commission I am clear and decided. Can +I, can any one who has taken the smallest trouble to be informed +concerning the affairs of India, amuse himself with so strange an +imagination as that the habitual despotism and oppression, that the +monopolies, the peculations, the universal destruction of all the legal +authority of this kingdom, which have been for twenty years maturing to +their present enormity, combined with the distance of the scene, the +boldness and artifice of delinquents, their combination, their excessive +wealth, and the faction they have made in England, can be fully +corrected in a shorter term than four years? None has hazarded such an +assertion; none who has a regard for his reputation will hazard it.</p> + +<p>Sir, the gentlemen, whoever they are, who shall be appointed to this +commission, have an undertaking of magnitude on their hands, and their +stability must not only be, but it must be thought, real; and who is it +will believe that anything short of an establishment made, supported, +and fixed in its duration, with all the authority of Parliament, can be +thought secure of a reasonable stability? The plan of my honorable +friend is the reverse of that of reforming by the authors of the abuse. +The best we could expect from them is, that they should not continue +their ancient, pernicious activity. To those we could think of nothing +but applying <i>control</i>; as we are sure that even a regard to their +reputation (if any such thing exists in them) would oblige them to +cover, to conceal, to suppress, and consequently to prevent all cure of +the grievances of India. For what can be discovered which is not to +their disgrace? Every attempt to correct an abuse would be a satire on +<a name="Page_530" id="Page_530" title="530" class="pagenum"></a>their former administration. Every man they should pretend to call to +an account would be found their instrument, or their accomplice. They +can never see a beneficial regulation, but with a view to defeat it. The +shorter the tenure of such persons, the better would be the chance of +some amendment.</p> + +<p>But the system of the bill is different. It calls in persons in no wise +concerned with any act censured by Parliament,—persons generated with, +and for, the reform, of which they are themselves the most essential +part. To these the chief regulations in the bill are helps, not fetters: +they are authorities to support, not regulations to restrain them. From +these we look for much more than innocence. From these we expect zeal, +firmness, and unremitted activity. Their duty, their character, binds +them to proceedings of vigor; and they ought to have a tenure in their +office which precludes all fear, whilst they are acting up to the +purposes of their trust,—a tenure without which none will undertake +plans that require a series and system of acts. When they know that they +cannot be whispered out of their duty, that their public conduct cannot +be censured without a public discussion, that the schemes which they +have begun will not be committed to those who will have an interest and +credit in defeating and disgracing them, then we may entertain hopes. +The tenure is for four years, or during their good behavior. That good +behavior is as long as they are true to the principles of the bill; and +the judgment is in either House of Parliament. This is the tenure of +your judges; and the valuable principle of the bill is to make a +judicial administration for India. It is to give confidence in the +execution of a duty which re<a name="Page_531" id="Page_531" title="531" class="pagenum"></a>quires as much perseverance and fortitude +as can fall to the lot of any that is born of woman.</p> + +<p>As to the gain by party from the right honorable gentleman's bill, let +it be shown that this supposed party advantage is pernicious to its +object, and the objection is of weight; but until this is done, (and +this has not been attempted,) I shall consider the sole objection from +its tendency to promote the interest of a party as altogether +contemptible. The kingdom is divided into parties, and it ever has been +so divided, and it ever will be so divided; and if no system for +relieving the subjects of this kingdom from oppression, and snatching +its affairs from ruin, can be adopted, until it is demonstrated that no +party can derive an advantage from it, no good can ever be done in this +country. If party is to derive an advantage from the reform of India, +(which is more than I know or believe,) it ought to be that party which +alone in this kingdom has its reputation, nay, its very being, pledged +to the protection and preservation of that part of the empire. Great +fear is expressed that the commissioners named in this bill will show +some regard to a minister out of place. To men made like the objectors +this must appear criminal. Let it, however, be remembered by others, +that, if the commissioners should be his friends, they cannot be his +slaves. But dependants are not in a condition to adhere to friends, nor +to principles, nor to any uniform line of conduct. They may begin +censors, and be obliged to end accomplices. They may be even put under +the direction of those whom they were appointed to punish.</p> + +<p>The fourth and last objection is, that the bill will hurt public credit. +I do not know whether this re<a name="Page_532" id="Page_532" title="532" class="pagenum"></a>quires an answer. But if it does, look to +your foundations. The sinking fund is the pillar of credit in this +country; and let it not be forgot, that the distresses, owing to the +mismanagement, of the East India Company, have already taken a million +from that fund by the non-payment of duties. The bills drawn upon the +Company, which are about four millions, cannot be accepted without the +consent of the Treasury. The Treasury, acting under a Parliamentary +trust and authority, pledges the public for these millions. If they +pledge the public, the public must have a security in its hands for the +management of this interest, or the national credit is gone. For +otherwise it is not only the East India Company, which is a great +interest, that is undone, but, clinging to the security of all your +funds, it drags down the rest, and the whole fabric perishes in one +ruin. If this bill does not provide a direction of integrity and of +ability competent to that trust, the objection is fatal; if it does, +public credit must depend on the support of the bill.</p> + +<p>It has been said, If you violate this charter, what security has the +charter of the Bank, in which public credit is so deeply concerned, and +even the charter of London, in which the rights of so many subjects are +involved? I answer, In the like case they have no security at all,—no, +no security at all. If the Bank should, by every species of +mismanagement, fall into a state similar to that of the East India +Company,—if it should be oppressed with demands it could not answer, +engagements which it could not perform, and with bills for which it +could not procure payment,—no charter should protect the mismanagement +from correction, and such public grievances from redress.<a name="Page_533" id="Page_533" title="533" class="pagenum"></a> If the city +of London had the means and will of destroying an empire, and of cruelly +oppressing and tyrannizing over millions of men as good as themselves, +the charter of the city of London should prove no sanction to such +tyranny and such oppression. Charters are kept, when their purposes are +maintained: they are violated, when the privilege is supported against +its end and its object.</p> + +<p>Now, Sir, I have finished all I proposed to say, as my reasons for +giving my vote to this bill. If I am wrong, it is not for want of pains +to know what is right. This pledge, at least, of my rectitude I have +given to my country.</p> + +<p>And now, having done my duty to the bill, let me say a word to the +author. I should leave him to his own noble sentiments, if the unworthy +and illiberal language with which he has been treated, beyond all +example of Parliamentary liberty, did not make a few words +necessary,—not so much in justice to him as to my own feelings. I must +say, then, that it will be a distinction honorable to the age, that the +rescue of the greatest number of the human race that ever were so +grievously oppressed from the greatest tyranny that was ever exercised +has fallen to the lot of abilities and dispositions equal to the +task,—that it has fallen to one who has the enlargement to comprehend, +the spirit to undertake, and the eloquence to support so great a measure +of hazardous benevolence. His spirit is not owing to his ignorance of +the state of men and things: he well knows what snares are spread about +his path, from personal animosity, from court intrigues, and possibly +from popular delusion. But he has put to hazard his ease, his security, +his interest, his power, even his darling pop<a name="Page_534" id="Page_534" title="534" class="pagenum"></a>ularity, for the benefit +of a people whom he has never seen. This is the road that all heroes +have trod before him. He is traduced and abused for his supposed +motives. He will remember that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the +composition of all true glory: he will remember that it was not only in +the Roman customs, but it is in the nature and constitution of things, +that calumny and abuse are essential parts of triumph. These thoughts +will support a mind which only exists for honor under the burden of +temporary reproach. He is doing, indeed, a great good,—such as rarely +falls to the lot, and almost as rarely coincides with the desires, of +any man. Let him use his time. Let him give the whole length of the +reins to his benevolence. He is now on a great eminence, where the eyes +of mankind are turned to him. He may live long, he may do much; but here +is the summit: he never can exceed what he does this day.</p> + +<p>He has faults; but they are faults that, though they may in a small +degree tarnish the lustre and sometimes impede the march of his +abilities, have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of great virtues. +In those faults there is no mixture of deceit, of hypocrisy, of pride, +of ferocity, of complexional despotism, or want of feeling for the +distresses of mankind. His are faults which might exist in a descendant +of Henry the Fourth of France, as they did exist in that father of his +country. Henry the Fourth wished that he might live to see a fowl in the +pot of every peasant in his kingdom. That sentiment of homely +benevolence was worth all the splendid sayings that are recorded of +kings. But he wished perhaps for more than could be obtained, and the +goodness of <a name="Page_535" id="Page_535" title="535" class="pagenum"></a>the man exceeded the power of the king. But this gentleman, +a subject, may this day say this at least with truth,—that he secures +the rice in his pot to every man in India. A poet of antiquity thought +it one of the first distinctions to a prince whom he meant to celebrate, +that through a long succession of generations he had been the progenitor +of an able and virtuous citizen who by force of the arts of peace had +corrected governments of oppression and suppressed wars of rapine.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Indole proh quanta juvenis, quantumque daturus<br /></span> +<span>Ausoniæ populis ventura in sæcula civem!<br /></span> +<span>Ille super Gangem, super exauditus et Indos,<br /></span> +<span>Implebit terras voce, et furialia bella<br /></span> +<span>Fulmine compescet linguæ.—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">This was what was said of the predecessor of the only person to whose +eloquence it does not wrong that of the mover of this bill to be +compared. But the Ganges and the Indus are the patrimony of the fame of +my honorable friend, and not of Cicero. I confess I anticipate with joy +the reward of those whose whole consequence, power, and authority exist +only for the benefit of mankind; and I carry my mind to all the people, +and all the names and descriptions, that, relieved by this bill, will +bless the labors of this Parliament, and the confidence which the best +House of Commons has given to him who the best deserves it. The little +cavils of party will not be heard where freedom and happiness will be +felt. There is not a tongue, a nation, or religion in India, which will +not bless the presiding care and manly beneficence of this House, and of +him who proposes to you this great work. Your names will never be +separated before the throne of the Divine Goodness, in <a name="Page_536" id="Page_536" title="536" class="pagenum"></a>whatever +language, or with whatever rites, pardon is asked for sin, and reward +for those who imitate the Godhead in His universal bounty to His +creatures. These honors you deserve, and they will surely be paid, when +all the jargon of influence and party and patronage are swept into +oblivion.</p> + +<p>I have spoken what I think, and what I feel, of the mover of this bill. +An honorable friend of mine, speaking of his merits, was charged with +having made a studied panegyric. I don't know what his was. Mine, I am +sure, is a studied panegyric,—the fruit of much meditation, the result +of the observation of near twenty years. For my own part, I am happy +that I have lived to see this day; I feel myself overpaid for the labors +of eighteen years, when, at this late period, I am able to take my +share, by one humble vote, in destroying a tyranny that exists to the +disgrace of this nation and the destruction of so large a part of the +human species.<a name="Page_537" id="Page_537" title="537" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52" /><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> An allusion made by Mr. Powis.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53" /><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Mr. Pitt.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54" /><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Mr. Pitt.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55" /><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Mr. Dundas, Lord Advocate of Scotland.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56" /><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> The paltry foundation at Calcutta is scarcely worth naming +as an exception.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57" /><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Mr. Fox.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58" /><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Governor Johnstone.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="REPRESENTATION_TO_HIS_MAJESTY" id="REPRESENTATION_TO_HIS_MAJESTY" /><span style="font-size: 60%">A</span><br /> +<br /> +REPRESENTATION TO HIS MAJESTY,<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">MOVED IN</span><br /> +<br /> +THE HOUSE OF COMMONS<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%">BY THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE, AND SECONDED BY WILLIAM WINDHAM, ESQ.,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">ON MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1784,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%">AND NEGATIVED.</span><br /> +<br /> +WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES.</h2> +<p><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538" title="538" class="pagenum"></a></p> +<p><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539" title="539" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE2" id="PREFACE2" />PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>The representation now given to the public relates to some of the most +essential privileges of the House of Commons. It would appear of little +importance, if it were to be judged by its reception in the place where +it was proposed. There it was rejected without debate. The subject +matter may, perhaps, hereafter appear to merit a more serious +consideration. Thinking men will scarcely regard the <i>penal</i> dissolution +of a Parliament as a very trifling concern. Such a dissolution must +operate forcibly as an example; and it much imports the people of this +kingdom to consider what lesson that example is to teach.</p> + +<p>The late House of Commons was not accused of an interested compliance to +the will of a court. The charge against them was of a different nature. +They were charged with being actuated by an extravagant spirit of +independency. This species of offence is so closely connected with +merit, this vice bears so near a resemblance to virtue, that the flight +of a House of Commons above the exact temperate medium of independence +ought to be correctly ascertained, lest we give encouragement to +dispositions of a less generous nature, and less safe for the people; we +ought to call for very solid and convincing proofs of the existence, and +of the magnitude, too, <a name="Page_540" id="Page_540" title="540" class="pagenum"></a>of the evils which are charged to an independent +spirit, before we give sanction to any measure, that, by checking a +spirit so easily damped, and so hard to be excited, may affect the +liberty of a part of our Constitution, which, if not free, is worse than +useless.</p> + +<p>The Editor does not deny that by possibility such an abuse may exist: +but, <i>primâ fronte</i>, there is no reason to presume it. The House of +Commons is not, by its complexion, peculiarly subject to the distempers +of an independent habit. Very little compulsion is necessary, on the +part of the people, to render it abundantly complaisant to ministers and +favorites of all descriptions. It required a great length of time, very +considerable industry and perseverance, no vulgar policy, the union of +many men and many tempers, and the concurrence of events which do not +happen every day, to build up an independent House of Commons. Its +demolition was accomplished in a moment; and it was the work of ordinary +hands. But to construct is a matter of skill; to demolish, force and +fury are sufficient.</p> + +<p>The late House of Commons has been punished for its independence. That +example is made. Have we an example on record of a House of Commons +punished for its servility? The rewards of a senate so disposed are +manifest to the world. Several gentlemen are very desirous of altering +the constitution of the House of Commons; but they must alter the frame +and constitution of human nature itself, before they can so fashion it, +by any mode of election, that its conduct will not be influenced by +reward and punishment, by fame and by disgrace. If these examples take +root in the minds of men, <a name="Page_541" id="Page_541" title="541" class="pagenum"></a>what members hereafter will be bold enough +not to be corrupt, especially as the king's highway of obsequiousness is +so very broad and easy? To make a passive member of Parliament, no +dignity of mind, no principles of honor, no resolution, no ability, no +industry, no learning, no experience, are in the least degree necessary. +To defend a post of importance against a powerful enemy requires an +Eliot; a drunken invalid is qualified to hoist a white flag, or to +deliver up the keys of the fortress on his knees.</p> + +<p>The gentlemen chosen into this Parliament, for the purpose of this +surrender, were bred to better things, and are no doubt qualified for +other service. But for this strenuous exertion of inactivity, for the +vigorous task of submission and passive obedience, all their learning +and ability are rather a matter of personal ornament to themselves than +of the least use in the performance of their duty.</p> + +<p>The present surrender, therefore, of rights and privileges without +examination, and the resolution to support any minister given by the +secret advisers of the crown, determines not only on all the power and +authority of the House, but it settles the character and description of +the men who are to compose it, and perpetuates that character as long as +it may be thought expedient to keep up a phantom of popular +representation.</p> + +<p>It is for the chance of some amendment before this new settlement takes +a permanent form, and while the matter is yet soft and ductile, that the +Editor has republished this piece, and added some notes and explanations +to it. His intentions, he hopes, will excuse him to the original mover, +and to the world.<a name="Page_542" id="Page_542" title="542" class="pagenum"></a> He acts from a strong sense of the incurable ill +effects of holding out the conduct of the late House of Commons as an +example to be shunned by future representatives of the people.<a name="Page_543" id="Page_543" title="543" class="pagenum"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MOTION" id="MOTION" />MOTION<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">RELATIVE TO</span><br /> +<br /> +THE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + + +<h2><span style="font-size: 75%">LUNÆ, 14° DIE JUNII, 1784.</span></h2> + + +<p>A motion was made, That a representation be presented to his Majesty, +most humbly to offer to his royal consideration, that the address of +this House, upon his Majesty's speech from the throne, was dictated +solely by our conviction of his Majesty's own most gracious intentions +towards his people, which, as we feel with gratitude, so we are ever +ready to acknowledge with cheerfulness and satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Impressed with these sentiments, we were willing to separate from our +general expressions of duty, respect, and veneration to his Majesty's +royal person and his princely virtues all discussion whatever with +relation to several of the matters suggested and several of the +expressions employed in that speech.</p> + +<p>That it was not fit or becoming that any decided opinion should be +formed by his faithful Commons on that speech, without a degree of +deliberation adequate to the importance of the object. Having afforded +ourselves due time for that deliberation, we do now most humbly beg +leave to represent to his Majesty, that, in the speech from the throne, +his ministers have thought proper to use a language of a very alarming +import, unauthorized by the practice of <a name="Page_544" id="Page_544" title="544" class="pagenum"></a>good times, and irreconcilable +to the principles of this government.</p> + +<p>Humbly to express to his Majesty, that it is the privilege and duty of +this House to guard the Constitution from all infringement on the part +of ministers, and, whenever the occasion requires it, to warn them +against any abuse of the authorities committed to them; but it is very +lately,<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59" /><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor" +title="See King's Speech, Dec. 5, 1782, and May 19, 1784.">[59]</a> that, in a manner not more unseemly than irregular and +preposterous, ministers have thought proper, by admonition from the +throne, implying distrust and reproach, to convey the expectations of +the people to us, their sole representatives,<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60" /> +<a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor" title=""I shall never submit to the doctrines +I have heard this day from the woolsack, that the other House [House of Commons] are the only +representatives and guardians of the people's rights. I boldly maintain the contrary. +I say this House [House of Lords] is equally the representatives of the people."—Lord +Shelburne's Speech, April 8, 1778. Vide Parliamentary Register, Vol. X. p. 892.">[60]</a> and have presumed to +caution us, the natural guardians of the Constitution, against any +infringement of it on our parts.</p> + +<p>This dangerous innovation we, his faithful Commons, think it our duty to +mark; and as these admonitions from the throne, by their frequent +repetition, seem intended to lead gradually to the establishment of an +usage, we hold ourselves bound thus solemnly to protest against them.</p> + +<p>This House will be, as it ever ought to be, anxiously attentive to the +inclinations and interests of its constituents; nor do we desire to +straiten any of the avenues to the throne, or to either House of +Parliament. But the ancient order in which the rights of the people have +been exercised is not a restriction of these rights. It is a method +providently framed in <a name="Page_545" id="Page_545" title="545" class="pagenum"></a>favor of those privileges which it preserves and +enforces, by keeping in that course which has been found the most +effectual for answering their ends. His Majesty may receive the opinions +and wishes of individuals under their signatures, and of bodies +corporate under their seals, as expressing their own particular sense; +and he may grant such redress as the legal powers of the crown enable +the crown to afford. This, and the other House of Parliament, may also +receive the wishes of such corporations and individuals by petition. The +collective sense of his people his Majesty is to receive from his +Commons in Parliament assembled. It would destroy the whole spirit of +the Constitution, if his Commons were to receive that sense from the +ministers of the crown, or to admit them to be a proper or a regular +channel for conveying it.</p> + +<p>That the ministers in the said speech declare, "His Majesty has a just +and confident reliance that we (his faithful Commons) are animated with +the same sentiments of loyalty, and the same attachment to our excellent +Constitution which he had the happiness to see so fully manifested in +every part of the kingdom."</p> + +<p>To represent, that his faithful Commons have never foiled in loyalty to +his Majesty. It is new to them to be reminded of it. It is unnecessary +and invidious to press it upon them by any example. This recommendation +of loyalty, after his Majesty has sat for so many years, with the full +support of all descriptions of his subjects, on the throne of this +kingdom, at a time of profound peace, and without any pretence of the +existence or apprehension of war or conspiracy, becomes in itself a +source of no small jealousy to his faithful Commons; as many +circumstances lead <a name="Page_546" id="Page_546" title="546" class="pagenum"></a>us to apprehend that therein the ministers have +reference to some other measures and principles of loyalty, and to some +other ideas of the Constitution, than the laws require, or the practice +of Parliament will admit.</p> + +<p>No regular communication of the proofs of loyalty and attachment to the +Constitution, alluded to in the speech from the throne, have been laid +before this House, in order to enable us to judge of the nature, +tendency, or occasion of them, or in what particular acts they were +displayed; but if we are to suppose the manifestations of loyalty (which +are held out to us as an example for imitation) consist in certain +addresses delivered to his Majesty, promising support to his Majesty in +the exercise of his prerogative, and thanking his Majesty for removing +certain of his ministers, on account of the votes they have given upon +bills depending in Parliament,—if this be the example of loyalty +alluded to in the speech from the throne, then we must beg leave to +express our serious concern for the impression which has been made on +any of our fellow-subjects by misrepresentations which have seduced them +into a seeming approbation of proceedings subversive of their own +freedom. We conceive that the opinions delivered in these papers were +not well considered; nor were the parties duly informed of the nature of +the matters on which they were called to determine, nor of those +proceedings of Parliament which they were led to censure.</p> + +<p>We shall act more advisedly.—The loyalty we shall manifest will not be +the same with theirs; but, we trust, it will be equally sincere, and +more enlightened. It is no slight authority which shall persuade us (by +receiving as proofs of loyalty the mistaken <a name="Page_547" id="Page_547" title="547" class="pagenum"></a>principles lightly taken up +in these addresses) obliquely to criminate, with the heavy and +ungrounded charge of disloyalty and disaffection, an uncorrupt, +independent, and reforming Parliament.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61" /> +<a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor" title="In that Parliament the House of Commons +by two several resolutions put an end to the American war. Immediately on the change of +ministry which ensued, in order to secure their own independence, and to prevent +the accumulation of new burdens on the people by the growth of a civil list debt, +they passed the Establishment Bill. By that bill thirty-six offices tenable by members +of Parliament were suppressed, and an order of payment was framed by which the growth +of any fresh debt was rendered impracticable. The debt on the civil list from the +beginning of the present reign had amounted to one million three hundred thousand +pounds and upwards. Another act was passed for regulating the office of the Paymaster-General +and the offices subordinate to it. A million of public money had sometimes been in the +hands of the paymasters: this act prevented the possibility of any money whatsoever +being accumulated in that office in future. The offices of the Exchequer, whose +emoluments in time of war were excessive, and grew in exact proportion to the +public burdens, were regulated,—some of them suppressed, and the rest reduced +to fixed salaries. To secure the freedom of election against the crown, a bill was +passed to disqualify all officers concerned in the collection of the revenue in any +of its branches from voting in elections: a most important act, not only with regard +to its primary object, the freedom of election, but as materially forwarding the due +collection of revenue. For the same end, (the preserving the freedom of election,) the +House rescinded the famous judgment relative to the Middlesex election, and expunged +it from the journals. On the principle of reformation of their own House, connected +with a principle of public economy, an act passed for rendering contractors with +government incapable of a seat in Parliament. The India Bill (unfortunately lost +in the House of Lords) pursued the same idea to its completion, and disabled all +servants of the East India Company from a seat in that House for a certain time, +and until their conduct was examined into and cleared. The remedy of infinite +corruptions and of infinite disorders and oppressions, as well as the security +of the most important objects of public economy, perished with that bill and that +Parliament. That Parliament also instituted a committee to inquire into the +collection of the revenue in all its branches, which prosecuted its duty with +great vigor, and suggested several material improvements.">[61]</a> Above all, we shall take care +that none of the rights and privileges, always claimed, and since the +accession of his Majesty's illustrious family constantly exercised by +this House, (and which we hold and exercise in trust for the Commons of +Great Britain, and for their benefit,) shall be constructively +surrendered, or even weakened and impaired, under ambiguous phrases and +implications of censure on the late Parliamentary proceedings. If these +claims are not well founded, they ought to be honestly abandoned; if +they are just, they ought to be steadily and resolutely maintained.</p> + +<p>Of his Majesty's own gracious disposition towards the true principles of +our free Constitution his faith<a name="Page_548" id="Page_548" title="548" class="pagenum"></a>ful Commons never did or could entertain +a doubt; but we humbly beg leave to express to his Majesty our +uneasiness concerning other new and unusual expressions of his +ministers, declaratory of a resolution "to support in their <i>just +balance</i> the rights and privileges of every branch of the legislature."</p> + +<p>It were desirable that all hazardous theories concerning a balance of +rights and privileges (a mode of expression wholly foreign to +Parliamentary usage) might have been forborne. His Majesty's faithful +Commons are well instructed in their own rights and privileges, which +they are determined to maintain on the footing upon which they were +handed down from their ancestors; they are not unacquainted with the +rights and privileges of the House of Peers; and they know and respect +the lawful prerogatives of the crown: but they do not think it safe to +admit anything concerning the existence of a balance of those <a name="Page_549" id="Page_549" title="549" class="pagenum"></a>rights, +privileges, and prerogatives; nor are they able to discern to what +objects ministers would apply their fiction of a balance, nor what they +would consider as a just one. These unauthorized doctrines have a +tendency to stir improper discussions, and to lead to mischievous +innovations in the Constitution.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62" /> +<a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor" title="If these speculations are let loose, +the House of Lords may quarrel with their share of the legislature, as being limited +with regard to the origination of grants to the crown and the origination of money +bills. The advisers of the crown may think proper to bring its negative into ordinary +use,—and even to dispute, whether a mere negative, compared with the deliberative +power exercised in the other Houses, be such a share in the legislature as to produce +a due balance in favor of that branch, and thus justify the previous interference +of the crown in the manner lately used. The following will serve to show how much +foundation there is for great caution concerning these novel speculations. Lord +Shelburne, in his celebrated speech, April 8th, 1778, expresses himself as follows. +(Vide Parliamentary Register, Vol. X.) + +"The noble and learned lord on the woolsack, in the debate which opened the +business of this day, asserted that your Lordships were incompetent to make any +alteration in a money bill or a bill of supply, I should be glad to see the matter +fairly and fully discussed, and the subject brought forward and argued upon precedent, +as well as all its collateral relations. I should be pleased to see the question +fairly committed, were it for no other reason but to hear the sleek, smooth +contractors from the other House come to this bar and declare, that they, and they +only, could frame a money bill, and they, and they only, could dispose of the +property of the peers of Great Britain. Perhaps some arguments more plausible +than those I heard this day from the woolsack, to show that the Commons have an +uncontrollable, unqualified right to bind your Lordships' property, may be urged +by them. At present, I beg leave to differ from the noble and learned lord; for, +until the claim, after a solemn discussion of this House, is openly and directly +relinquished, I shall continue to be of opinion that your Lordships have a right +to after, amend, or reject a money bill." + +The Duke of Richmond also, in his letter to the volunteers of Ireland, speaks of +several of the powers exercised by the House of Commons in the light of usurpations; +and his Grace is of opinion, that, when the people are restored to what he +conceives to be their rights, in electing the House of Commons, the other branches +of the legislature ought to be restored to theirs.—Vide Remembrancer, Vol. XVI.">[62]</a><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550" title="550" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>That his faithful Commons most humbly recommend, instead of the +inconsiderate speculations of unexperienced men, that, on all occasions, +resort should be had to the happy practice of Parliament, and to those +solid maxims of government which have prevailed since the accession of +his Majesty's illustrious family, as furnishing the only safe principles +on which the crown and Parliament can proceed.</p> + +<p>We think it the more necessary to be cautious on this head, as, in the +last Parliament, the present ministers had thought proper to +countenance, if not to suggest, an attack upon the most clear and +undoubted rights and privileges of this House.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63" /><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor" +title="By an act of Parliament, the Directors of the East India Company are restrained +from acceptance of bills drawn, from India, beyond a certain amount, without the +consent of the Commissioners of the Treasury. The late House of Commons, finding +bills to an immense amount drawn upon that body by their servants abroad, and +knowing their circumstances to be exceedingly doubtful, came to a resolution +providently, cautioning the Lords of the Treasury against the acceptance of these +bills, until the House should otherwise direct. The Court Lords then took occasion +to declare against the resolution as illegal, by the Commons undertaking to direct +in the execution of a trust created by act of Parliament. The House, justly alarmed +at this resolution, which went to the destruction of the whole of its superintending +capacity, and particularly in matters relative to its own province of money, directed +a committee to search the journals, and they found a regular series of precedents, +commencing from the remotest of those records, and carried on to that day, by which +it appeared that the House interfered, by an authoritative advice and admonition, +upon every act of executive government without exception, and in many much stronger +cases than that which the Lords thought proper to quarrel with.">[63]</a><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551" title="551" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>Fearing, from these extraordinary admonitions, and from the new +doctrines, which seem to have dictated several unusual expressions, that +his Majesty has been abused by false representations of the late +proceedings in Parliament, we think it our duty respectfully to inform +his Majesty, that no attempt whatever has been made against his lawful +prerogatives, or against the rights and privileges of the Peers, by the +late House of Commons, in any of their addresses, votes, or resolutions; +neither do we know of any proceeding by bill, in which it was proposed +to abridge the extent of his royal prerogative: but, if such provision +had existed in any bill, we protest, and we declare, against all +speeches, acts, or addresses, from any persons whatsoever, which have a +tendency to consider such bills, or the persons concerned in them, as +just objects of any kind of censure and punishment from the throne. +Necessary reformations may hereafter require, as they have frequently +done in former times, limitations and abridgments, and in some cases an +entire extinction, of some branch of prerogative. If bills should be +improper in the form in which they appear in the House where they +originate, they are liable, by the wisdom of this Constitution, to be +corrected, and even to be totally set aside, elsewhere. This is the +known, the legal, and the safe remedy; but whatever, by the +manifestation of the royal displeasure, tends to intimidate individual +members from proposing, or this House from receiving, debating, and +passing bills, tends to prevent even the beginning of every reformation +in the state, and utterly destroys the deliberative capacity of +Parliament. We therefore claim, demand, and insist upon it, as our +undoubted right, <a name="Page_552" id="Page_552" title="552" class="pagenum"></a>that no persons shall be deemed proper objects of +animadversion by the crown, in any mode whatever, for the votes which +they give or the propositions which they make in Parliament.</p> + +<p>We humbly conceive, that besides its share of the legislative power, and +its right of impeachment, that, by the law and usage of Parliament, this +House has other powers and capacities, which it is bound to maintain. +This House is assured that our humble advice on the exercise of +prerogative will be heard with the same attention with which it has ever +been regarded, and that it will be followed by the same effects which it +has ever produced, during the happy and glorious reigns of his Majesty's +royal progenitors,—not doubting but that, in all those points, we shall +be considered as a council of wisdom and weight to advise, and not +merely as an accuser of competence to criminate.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64" /> +<a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor" title=""I observe, at the same time, that +there is no charge or complaint suggested against my present ministers."—The King's Answer, +25th February, 1784, to the Address of the House of Common. Vide Resolutions of the House of +Commons, printed for Debrett, p. 31.">[64]</a> This House claims +both capacities; and we trust that we shall be left to our free +discretion which of them we shall employ as best calculated for his +Majesty's and the national service. Whenever we shall see it expedient +to offer our advice concerning his Majesty's servants, who are those of +the public, we confidently hope that the personal favor of any minister, +or any set of ministers, will not be more dear to his Majesty than the +credit and character of a House of Commons. It is an experiment full of +peril to put the representative wisdom and justice of his Majesty's +people in the wrong; it is a crooked and desperate design, leading to +mischief, the extent <a name="Page_553" id="Page_553" title="553" class="pagenum"></a>of which no human wisdom can foresee, to attempt +to form a prerogative party in the nation, to be resorted to as occasion +shall require, in derogation, from the authority of the Commons of Great +Britain in Parliament assembled; it is a contrivance full of danger, for +ministers to set up the representative and constituent bodies of the +Commons of this kingdom as two separate and distinct powers, formed to +counterpoise each other, leaving the preference in the hands of secret +advisers of the crown. In such a situation of things, these advisers, +taking advantage of the differences which may accidentally arise or may +purposely be fomented between them, will have it in their choice to +resort to the one or the other, as may best suit the purposes of their +sinister ambition. By exciting an emulation and contest between the +representative and the constituent bodies, as parties contending for +credit and influence at the throne, sacrifices will be made by both; and +the whole can end in nothing else than the destruction of the dearest +rights and liberties of the nation. If there must be another mode of +conveying the collective sense of the people to the throne than that by +the House of Commons, it ought to be fixed and defined, and its +authority ought to be settled: it ought not to exist in so precarious +and dependent a state as that ministers should have it in their power, +at their own mere pleasure, to acknowledge it with respect or to reject +it with scorn.</p> + +<p>It is the undoubted prerogative of the crown to dissolve Parliament; but +we beg leave to lay before his Majesty, that it is, of all the trusts +vested in his Majesty, the most critical and delicate, and that in which +this House has the most reason to require, not <a name="Page_554" id="Page_554" title="554" class="pagenum"></a>only the good faith, but +the favor of the crown. His Commons are not always upon a par with his +ministers in an application to popular judgment; it is not in the power +of the members of this House to go to their election at the moment the +most favorable for them. It is in the power of the crown to choose a +time for their dissolution whilst great and arduous matters of state and +legislation are depending, which may be easily misunderstood, and which +cannot be fully explained before that misunderstanding may prove fatal +to the honor that belongs and to the consideration that is due to +members of Parliament.</p> + +<p>With his Majesty is the gift of all the rewards, the honors, +distinctions, favors, and graces of the state; with his Majesty is the +mitigation of all the rigors of the law: and we rejoice to see the crown +possessed of trusts calculated to obtain good-will, and charged with +duties which are popular and pleasing. Our trusts are of a different +kind. Our duties are harsh and invidious in their nature; and justice +and safety is all we can expect in the exercise of them. We are to offer +salutary, which is not always pleasing counsel: we are to inquire and to +accuse; and the objects of our inquiry and charge will be for the most +part persons of wealth, power, and extensive connections: we are to make +rigid laws for the preservation of revenue, which of necessity more or +less confine some action or restrain some function which before was +free: what is the most critical and invidious of all, the whole body of +the public impositions originate from us, and the hand of the House of +Commons is seen and felt in every burden that presses on the people. +Whilst ultimately we are serving them, and in the first instance whilst +we are serving <a name="Page_555" id="Page_555" title="555" class="pagenum"></a>his Majesty, it will be hard indeed, if we should see a +House of Commons the victim of its zeal and fidelity, sacrificed by his +ministers to those very popular discontents which shall be excited by +our dutiful endeavors for the security and greatness of his throne. No +other consequence can result from such an example, but that, in future, +the House of Commons, consulting its safety at the expense of its +duties, and suffering the whole energy of the state to be relaxed, will +shrink from every service which, however necessary, is of a great and +arduous nature,—or that, willing to provide for the public necessities, +and at the same time to secure the means of performing that task, they +will exchange independence for protection, and will court a subservient +existence through the favor of those ministers of state or those secret +advisers who ought themselves to stand in awe of the Commons of this +realm.</p> + +<p>A House of Commons respected by his ministers is essential to his +Majesty's service: it is fit that they should yield to Parliament, and +not that Parliament should be new-modelled until it is fitted to their +purposes. If our authority is only to be held up when we coincide in +opinion with his Majesty's advisers, but is to be set at nought the +moment it differs from them, the House of Commons will sink into a mere +appendage of administration, and will lose that independent character +which, inseparably connecting the honor and reputation with the acts of +this House, enables us to afford a real, effective, and substantial +support to his government. It is the deference shown to our opinion, +when we dissent from the servants of the crown, which alone can give +authority to the proceedings of this House, when it concurs with their +measures.<a name="Page_556" id="Page_556" title="556" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>That authority once lost, the credit of his Majesty's crown will be +impaired in the eyes of all nations. Foreign powers, who may yet wish to +revive a friendly intercourse with this nation, will look in vain for +that hold which gave a connection with Great Britain the preference to +an affiance with any other state. A House of Commons of which ministers +were known to stand in awe, where everything was necessarily discussed +on principles fit to be openly and publicly avowed, and which could not +be retracted or varied without danger, furnished a ground of confidence +in the public faith which the engagement of no state dependent on the +fluctuation of personal favor and private advice can ever pretend to. If +faith with the House of Commons, the grand security for the national +faith itself, can be broken with impunity, a wound is given to the +political importance of Great Britain which will not easily be healed.</p> + +<p>That there was a great variance between the late House of Commons and +certain persons, whom his Majesty has been advised to make and continue +as ministers, in defiance of the advice of that House, is notorious to +the world. That House did not confide in those ministers; and they +withheld their confidence from them for reasons for which posterity will +honor and respect the names of those who composed that House of Commons, +distinguished for its independence. They could not confide in persons +who have shown a disposition to dark and dangerous intrigues. By these +intrigues they have weakened, if not destroyed, the clear assurance +which his Majesty's people, and which all nations, ought to have of what +are and what are not the real acts of his government.<a name="Page_557" id="Page_557" title="557" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>If it should be seen that his ministers may continue in their offices +without any signification to them of his Majesty's displeasure at any of +their measures, whilst persons considerable for their rank, and known to +have had access to his Majesty's sacred person, can with impunity abuse +that advantage, and employ his Majesty's name to disavow and counteract +the proceedings of his official servants, nothing but distrust, discord, +debility, contempt of all authority, and general confusion, can prevail +in his government.</p> + +<p>This we lay before his Majesty, with humility and concern, as the +inevitable effect of a spirit of intrigue in his executive government: +an evil which we have but too much reason to be persuaded exists and +increases. During the course of the last session it broke out in a +manner the most alarming. This evil was infinitely aggravated by the +unauthorized, but not disavowed, use which has been made of his +Majesty's name, for the purpose of the most unconstitutional, corrupt, +and dishonorable influence on the minds of the members of Parliament +that ever was practised in this kingdom. No attention even to exterior +decorum, in the practice of corruption and intimidation employed on +peers, was observed: several peers were obliged under menaces to retract +their declarations and to recall their proxies.</p> + +<p>The Commons have the deepest interest in the purity and integrity of the +Peerage. The Peers dispose of all the property in the kingdom, in the +last resort; and they dispose of it on their honor, and not on their +oaths, as all the members of every other tribunal in the kingdom must +do,—though in them the proceeding is not conclusive. We have, +there<a name="Page_558" id="Page_558" title="558" class="pagenum"></a>fore, a right to demand that no application shall be made to peers +of such a nature as may give room to call in question, much less to +attaint, our sole security for all that we possess. This corrupt +proceeding appeared to the House of Commons, who are the natural +guardians of the purity of Parliament, and of the purity of every branch +of judicature, a most reprehensible and dangerous practice, tending to +shake the very foundation of the authority of the House of Peers; and +they branded it as such by their resolution.</p> + +<p>The House had not sufficient evidence to enable them legally to punish +this practice, but they had enough to caution them against all +confidence in the authors and abettors of it. They performed their duty +in humbly advising his Majesty against the employment of such ministers; +but his Majesty was advised to keep those ministers, and to dissolve +that Parliament. The House, aware of the importance and urgency of its +duty with regard to the British interests in India, which were and are +in the utmost disorder, and in the utmost peril, most humbly requested +his Majesty not to dissolve the Parliament during the course of their +very critical proceedings on that subject. His Majesty's gracious +condescension to that request was conveyed in the royal faith, pledged +to a House of Parliament, and solemnly delivered from the throne. It was +but a very few days after a committee had been, with the consent and +concurrence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, appointed for an inquiry +into certain accounts delivered to the House by the Court of Directors, +and then actually engaged in that inquiry, that the ministers, +regardless of the assurance given from the <a name="Page_559" id="Page_559" title="559" class="pagenum"></a>crown to a House of Commons, +did dissolve that Parliament. We most humbly submit to his Majesty's +consideration the consequences of this their breach of public faith.</p> + +<p>Whilst the members of the House of Commons, under that security, were +engaged in his Majesty's and the national business, endeavors were +industriously used to calumniate those whom it was found impracticable +to corrupt. The reputation of the members, and the reputation of the +House itself, was undermined in every part of the kingdom.</p> + +<p>In the speech from the throne relative to India, we are cautioned by the +ministers "not to lose sight of the effect any measure may have on the +Constitution of our country." We are apprehensive that a calumnious +report, spread abroad, of an attack upon his Majesty's prerogative by +the late House of Commons, may have made an impression on his royal +mind, and have given occasion to this unusual admonition to the present. +This attack is charged to have been made in the late Parliament by a +bill which passed the House of Commons, in the late session of that +Parliament, for the regulation of the affairs, for the preservation of +the commerce, and for the amendment of the government of this nation, in +the East Indies.</p> + +<p>That his Majesty and his people may have an opportunity of entering into +the ground of this injurious charge, we beg leave humbly to acquaint his +Majesty, that, far from having made any infringement whatsoever on any +part of his royal prerogative, that bill did, for a limited time, give +to his Majesty certain powers never before possessed by the crown; and +for this his present ministers (who, rather than fall short in the +number of their calumnies, employ <a name="Page_560" id="Page_560" title="560" class="pagenum"></a>some that are contradictory) have +slandered this House, as aiming at the extension of an unconstitutional +influence in his Majesty's crown. This pretended attempt to increase the +influence of the crown they were weak enough to endeavor to persuade his +Majesty's people was amongst the causes which excited his Majesty's +resentment against his late ministers.</p> + +<p>Further, to remove the impressions of this calumny concerning an attempt +in the House of Commons against his prerogative, it is proper to inform +his Majesty, that the territorial possessions in the East Indies never +have been declared by any public judgment, act, or instrument, or any +resolution of Parliament whatsoever, to be the subject matter of his +Majesty's prerogative; nor have they ever been understood as belonging +to his ordinary administration, or to be annexed or united to his crown; +but that they are acquisitions of a new and peculiar description,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65" /> +<a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor" title="The territorial possessions in the East Indies were +acquired to the Company, in virtue of grants from the Great Mogul, in the nature of +offices and jurisdictions, to be held under him, and dependent upon his crown, +with the express condition of being obedient to orders from his court, and of +paying an annual tribute to his treasury. It is true that no obedience is yielded +to these orders, and for some time past there has been no payment made of this +tribute. But it is under a grant so conditioned that they still hold. To subject +the King of Great Britain as tributary to a foreign power by the acts of his subjects; +to suppose the grant valid, and yet the condition void; to suppose it good for the king, +and insufficient for the Company; to suppose it an interest divisible between the parties: +these are some few of the many legal difficulties to be surmounted, before the Common +Law of England can acknowledge the East India Company's Asiatic affairs to be a +subject matter of prerogative, so as to bring it within the verge of English +jurisprudence. It is a very anomalous species of power and property which is held +by the East India Company. Our English prerogative law does not furnish principles, +much less precedents, by which it can be defined or adjusted. Nothing but the eminent +dominion of Parliament over every British subject, in every concern, and in +every circumstance in which he is placed, can adjust this new, intricate matter. +Parliament may act wisely or unwisely, justly or unjustly; but Parliament alone is competent to it.">[65]</a> +unknown to the ancient executive constitution of this country.</p> + +<p>From time to time, therefore, Parliament provided for their government +according to its discretion, and to its opinion of what was required by +the public ne<a name="Page_561" id="Page_561" title="561" class="pagenum"></a>cessities. We do not know that his Majesty was entitled, +by prerogative, to exercise any act of authority whatsoever in the +Company's affairs, or that, in effect, such authority has ever been +exercised. His Majesty's patronage was not taken away by that bill; +because it is notorious that his Majesty never originally had the +appointment of a single officer, civil or military, in the Company's +establishment in India: nor has the least degree of patronage ever been +acquired to the crown in any other manner or measure than as the power +was thought expedient to be granted by act of Parliament,—that is, by +the very same authority by which the offices were disposed of and +regulated in the bill which his Majesty's servants have falsely and +injuriously represented as infringing upon the prerogative of the crown.</p> + +<p>Before the year 1773 the whole administration of India, and the whole +patronage to office there, was in the hands of the East India Company. +The East India Company is not a branch of his Majesty's prerogative +administration, nor does that body exercise any species of authority +under it, nor indeed from any British title that does not derive all its +legal validity from acts of Parliament.<a name="Page_562" id="Page_562" title="562" class="pagenum"></a></p> + +<p>When a claim was asserted to the India territorial possessions in the +occupation of the Company, these possessions were not claimed as parcel +of his Majesty's patrimonial estate, or as a fruit of the ancient +inheritance of his crown: they were claimed for the public. And when +agreements were made with the East India Company concerning any +composition for the holding, or any participation of the profits, of +those territories, the agreement was made with the public; and the +preambles of the several acts have uniformly so stated it. These +agreements were not made (even nominally) with his Majesty, but with +Parliament: and the bills making and establishing such agreements always +originated in this House; which appropriated the money to await the +disposition of Parliament, without the ceremony of previous consent from +the crown even so much as suggested by any of his ministers: which +previous consent is an observance of decorum, not indeed of strict +right, but generally paid, when a new appropriation takes place in any +part of his Majesty's prerogative revenues.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of a right thus uniformly recognized and uniformly acted +on, when Parliament undertook the reformation of the East India Company +in 1773, a commission was appointed, as the commission in the late bill +was appointed; and it was made to continue for a term of years, as the +commission in the late bill was to continue; all the commissioners were +named in Parliament, as in the late bill they were named. As they +received, so they held their offices, wholly independent of the crown; +they held them for a fixed term; they were not removable by an address +of either House or even of both Houses of Parliament, a precaution +observed in the late bill relative <a name="Page_563" id="Page_563" title="563" class="pagenum"></a>to the commissioners proposed +therein; nor were they bound by the strict rules of proceeding which +regulated and restrained the late commissioners against all possible +abuse of a power which could not fail of being diligently and zealously +watched by the ministers of the crown, and the proprietors of the stock, +as well as by Parliament. Their proceedings were, in that bill, directed +to be of such a nature as easily to subject them to the strictest +revision of both, in case of any malversation.</p> + +<p>In the year 1780, an act of Parliament again made provision for the +government of those territories for another four years, without any sort +of reference to prerogative; nor was the least objection taken at the +second, more than at the first of those periods, as if an infringement +had been made upon the rights of the crown: yet his Majesty's ministers +have thought fit to represent the late commission as an entire +innovation on the Constitution, and the setting up a new order and +estate in the nation, tending to the subversion of the monarchy itself.</p> + +<p>If the government of the East Indies, other than by his Majesty's +prerogative, be in effect a fourth order in the commonwealth, this order +has long existed; because the East India Company has for many years +enjoyed it in the fullest extent, and does at this day enjoy the whole +administration of those provinces, and the patronage to offices +throughout that great empire, except as it is controlled by act of +Parliament.</p> + +<p>It was the ill condition and ill administration of the Company's affairs +which induced this House (merely as a temporary establishment) to vest +the same powers which the Company did before possess,<a name="Page_564" id="Page_564" title="564" class="pagenum"></a> (and no other,) +for a limited time, and under very strict directions, in proper hands, +until they could be restored, or farther provision made concerning them. +It was therefore no creation whatever of a new power, but the removal of +an old power, long since created, and then existing, from the management +of those persons who had manifestly and dangerously abused their trust. +This House, which well knows the Parliamentary origin of all the +Company's powers and privileges, and is not ignorant or negligent of the +authority which may vest those powers and privileges in others, if +justice and the public safety so require, is conscious to itself that it +no more creates a new order in the state, by making occasional trustees +for the direction of the Company, than it originally did in giving a +much more permanent trust to the Directors or to the General Court of +that body. The monopoly of the East India Company was a derogation from +the general freedom of trade belonging to his Majesty's people. The +powers of government, and of peace and war, are parts of prerogative of +the highest order. Of our competence to restrain the rights of all his +subjects by act of Parliament, and to vest those high and eminent +prerogatives even in a particular company of merchants, there has been +no question. We beg leave most humbly to claim as our right, and as a +right which this House has always used, to frame such bills for the +regulation of that commerce, and of the territories held by the East +India Company, and everything relating to them, as to our discretion +shall seem fit; and we assert and maintain that therein we follow, and +do not innovate on, the Constitution.</p> + +<p>That his Majesty's ministers, misled by their am<a name="Page_565" id="Page_565" title="565" class="pagenum"></a>bition, have +endeavored, if possible, to form a faction in the country against the +popular part of the Constitution; and have therefore thought proper to +add to their slanderous accusation against a House of Parliament, +relative to his Majesty's prerogative, another of a different nature, +calculated for the purpose of raising fears and jealousies among the +corporate bodies of the kingdom, and of persuading uninformed persons +belonging to those corporations to look to and to make addresses to +them, as protectors of their rights, under their several charters, from +the designs which they, without any ground, charged the then House of +Commons to have formed against <i>charters in general</i>. For this purpose +they have not scrupled to assert that the exertion of his Majesty's +prerogative in the late precipitate change in his administration, and +the dissolution of the late Parliament, were measures adopted in order +to rescue the people and their rights out of the hands of the House of +Commons, their representatives.</p> + +<p>We trust that his Majesty's subjects are not yet so far deluded as to +believe that the charters, or that any other of their local or general +privileges, can have a solid security in any place but where that +security has always been looked for, and always found,—in the House of +Commons. Miserable and precarious indeed would be the state of their +franchises, if they were to find no defence but from that quarter from +whence they have always been attacked!<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66" /> +<a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor" +title="The attempt upon charters and the privileges of the corporate bodies of the +kingdom in the reigns of Charles the Second and James the Second was made by the crown. +It was carried on by the ordinary course of law, in courts instituted for the security +of the property and franchises of the people. This attempt made by the crown was +attended with complete success. The corporate rights of the city of London, and +of all the companies it contains, were by solemn judgment of law declared forfeited, +and all their franchises, privileges, properties, and estates were of course seized +into the hands of the crown. The injury was from the crown: the redress was by +Parliament. A bill was brought into the House of Commons, by which the judgment +against the city of London, and against the companies, was reversed: and this bill +passed the House of Lords without any complaint of trespass on their jurisdiction, +although the bill was for a reversal of a judgment in law. By this act, which is +in the second of William and Mary, chap. 8, the question of forfeiture of that +charter is forever taken out of the power of any court of law: no cognizance can +be taken of it except in Parliament. + +Although the act above mentioned has declared the judgment against the +corporation of London to be illegal yet Blackstone makes no scruple of asserting, +that, "perhaps, in strictness of law, the proceedings in most of them [the Quo +Warranto causes] were sufficiently regular," leaving it in doubt, whether this +regularity did not apply to the corporation of London, as well as to any of the +rest; and he seems to blame the proceeding (as most blamable it was) not so +much on account of illegality as for the crown's having employed a legal +proceeding for political purposes. He calls it "an exertion of an act +of law for the purposes of the state." + +The same security which was given to the city of London, would have been +extended to all the corporations, if the House of Commons could have prevailed. +But the bill for that purpose passed but by a majority of one in the Lords; +and it was entirely lost by a prorogation, which is the act of the crown. +Small, indeed, was the security which the corporation of London enjoyed +before the act of William and Mary, and which all the other corporations, +secured by no statute, enjoy at this hour, if strict law was employed against +them. The use of strict law has always been rendered very delicate by the +same means by which the almost unmeasured legal powers residing (and in +many instances dangerously residing) in the crown are kept within due +bounds: I mean, that strong superintending power in the House of Commons +which inconsiderate people have been prevailed on to condemn as trenching +on prerogative. Strict law is by no means such a friend to the rights of +the subject as they have been taught to believe. They who have been most +conversant in this kind of learning will be most sensible of the danger +of submitting corporate rights of high political importance to these +subordinate tribunals. The general heads of law on that subject are +vulgar and trivial. On them there is not much question. But it is far +from easy to determine what special acts, or what special neglect of +action, shall subject corporations to a forfeiture. There is so much +laxity in this doctrine, that great room is left for favor or prejudice, +which might give to the crown an entire dominion over those corporations. +On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that every subordinate corporate +right ought to be subject to control, to superior direction, and even to +forfeiture upon just cause. In this reason and law agree. In every judgment +given on a corporate right of great political importance, the policy and +prudence make no small part of the question. To these considerations a court +of law is not competent; and, indeed, an attempt at the least intermixture of +such ideas with the matter of law could have no other effect than wholly to +corrupt the judicial character of the court in which such a cause should come +to be tried. It is besides to be remarked, that, if, in virtue of a legal +process, a forfeiture should be adjudged, the court of law has no power to +modify or mitigate. The whole franchise is annihilated, and the corporate +property goes into the hands of the crown. They who hold the new doctrines +concerning the power of the House of Commons ought well to consider in such +a case by what means the corporate rights could be revived, or the property +could be recovered out of the hands of the crown. But Parliament can do what +the courts neither can do nor ought to attempt. Parliament is competent to give +due weight to all political considerations. It may modify, it may mitigate, and +it may render perfectly secure, all that it does not think fit to take away. It +is not likely that Parliament will ever draw to itself the cognizance of questions +concerning ordinary corporations, farther than to protect them, in case attempts +are made to induce a forfeiture of their franchises. + +The case of the East India Company is different even from that of the greatest +of these corporations. No monopoly of trade, beyond their own limits, is vested +in the corporate body of any town or city in the kingdom. Even within these limits +the monopoly is not general. The Company has the monopoly of the trade of half +the world. The first corporation of the kingdom has for the object of its +jurisdiction only a few matters of subordinate police. The East India Company +governs an empire, through all its concerns and all its departments, from the +lowest office of economy to the highest councils of state,—an empire to which +Great Britain is in comparison but a respectable province. To leave these +concerns without superior cognizance would be madness; to leave them to be +judged in the courts below, on the principles of a confined jurisprudence, +would be folly. It is well, if the whole legislative power is competent to +the correction of abuses which are commensurate to the immensity of the object +they affect. The idea of an absolute power has, indeed, its terrors; but that +objection lies to every Parliamentary proceeding; and as no other can regulate +the abuses of such a charter, it is fittest that sovereign authority should be +exercised, where it is most likely to be attended with the most effectual +correctives. These correctives are furnished by the nature and course of +Parliamentary proceedings, and by the infinitely diversified characters who +compose the two Houses. In effect and virtually, they form a vast number, variety, +and succession of judges and jurors. The fulness, the freedom, and publicity of +discussion leaves it easy to distinguish what are acts of power, and what the +determinations of equity and reason. There prejudice corrects prejudice, and the +different asperities of party zeal mitigate and neutralize each other. So far +from violence being the general characteristic of the proceedings of Parliament, +whatever the beginnings of any Parliamentary process may be, its general fault +in the end is, that it is found incomplete and ineffectual.">[66]</a> But the late House of +Commons, in pass<a name="Page_566" id="Page_566" title="566" class="pagenum"></a>ing that bill, made no attack upon any powers or +privileges, except such as a House of Commons has frequently attacked, +and will attack, (and they trust, in the end, with their wonted +success,)—that is, upon those which are corruptly and oppressively +adminis<a name="Page_567" id="Page_567" title="567" class="pagenum"></a>tered; and this House do faithfully assure his Majesty, that we +will correct, and, if necessary for the purpose, as far as in us lies, +will wholly destroy, every species of power and authority exercised by +British subjects to the oppression, wrong, and detriment of <a name="Page_568" id="Page_568" title="568" class="pagenum"></a>the people, +and to the impoverishment and desolation of the countries subject to it.</p> + +<p>The propagators of the calumnies against that House of Parliament have +been indefatigable in exaggerating the supposed injury done to the East<a name="Page_569" id="Page_569" title="569" class="pagenum"></a> +India Company by the suspension of the authorities which they have in +every instance abused,—as if power had been wrested by wrong and +violence from just and prudent hands; but they have, with equal care, +concealed the weighty grounds and reasons on which that House had +adopted the most moderate of all possible expedients for rescuing the +natives of India from oppression, and for saving the interests of the +real and honest proprietors of their stock, as well as that great +national, commercial concern, from imminent ruin.</p> + +<p>The ministers aforesaid have also caused it to be reported that the +House of Commons have confiscated the property of the East India +Company. It is the reverse of truth. The whole management was a trust +for the proprietors, under their own inspection, (and it was so provided +for in the bill,) and under the inspection of Parliament. That bill, so +far from confiscating the Company's property, was the only one which, +for several years past, did not, in some shape or other, affect their +property, or restrain them in the disposition of it.</p> + +<p>It is proper that his Majesty and all his people should be informed that +the House of Commons have proceeded, with regard to the East India +Company, with a degree of care, circumspection, and deliberation, which +has not been equalled in the history of Parliamentary proceedings. For +sixteen years the state and condition of that body has never been wholly +out of their view. In the year 1767 the House took those objects into +consideration, in a committee of the whole House. The business was +pursued in the following year. In the year 1772 two committees were +appointed for the same purpose, which exam<a name="Page_570" id="Page_570" title="570" class="pagenum"></a>ined into their affairs with +much diligence, and made very ample reports. In the year 1773 the +proceedings were carried to an act of Parliament, which proved +ineffectual to its purpose. The oppressions and abuses in India have +since rather increased than diminished, on account of the greatness of +the temptations, and convenience of the opportunities, which got the +better of the legislative provisions calculated against ill practices +then in their beginnings; insomuch that, in 1781, two committees were +again instituted, who have made seventeen reports. It was upon the most +minute, exact, and laborious collection and discussion of facts, that +the late House of Commons proceeded in the reform which they attempted +in the administration of India, but which has been frustrated by ways +and means the most dishonorable to his Majesty's government, and the +most pernicious to the Constitution of this kingdom. His Majesty was so +sensible of the disorders in the Company's administration, that the +consideration of that subject was no less than six times recommended to +this House in speeches from the throne.</p> + +<p>The result of the Parliamentary inquiries has been, that the East India +Company was found totally corrupted, and totally perverted from the +purposes of its institution, whether political or commercial; that the +powers of war and peace given by the charter had been abused, by +kindling hostilities in every quarter for the purposes of rapine; that +almost all the treaties of peace they have made have only given cause to +so many breaches of public faith; that countries once the most +flourishing are reduced to a state of indigence, decay, and +depopulation, to the diminution of our strength, and to the infinite +dishonor of <a name="Page_571" id="Page_571" title="571" class="pagenum"></a>our national character; that the laws of this kingdom are +notoriously, and almost in every instance, despised; that the servants +of the Company, by the purchase of qualifications to vote in the General +Court, and, at length, by getting the Company itself deeply in their +debt, have obtained the entire and absolute mastery in the body by which +they ought to have been ruled and coerced. Thus their malversations in +office are supported, instead of being checked by the Company. The whole +of the affairs of that body are reduced to a most perilous situation; +and many millions of innocent and deserving men, who are under the +protection of this nation, and who ought to be protected by it, are +oppressed by a most despotic and rapacious tyranny. The Company and +their servants, having strengthened themselves by this confederacy, set +at defiance the authority and admonitions of this House employed to +reform them; and when this House had selected certain principal +delinquents, whom they declared it the duty of the Company to recall, +the Company held out its legal privileges against all reformation, +positively refused to recall them, and supported those who had fallen +under the just censure of this House with new and stronger marks of +countenance and approbation.</p> + +<p>The late House, discovering the reversed situation of the Company, by +which the nominal servants are really the masters, and the offenders are +become their own judges, thought fit to examine into the state of their +commerce; and they have also discovered that their commercial affairs +are in the greatest disorder; that their debts have accumulated beyond +any present or obvious future means of payment, at least under the +actual administration of their affairs; that <a name="Page_572" id="Page_572" title="572" class="pagenum"></a>this condition of the East +India Company has begun to affect the sinking fund itself, on which the +public credit of the kingdom rests,—a million and upwards being due to +the customs, which that House of Commons whose intentions towards the +Company have been so grossly misrepresented were indulgent enough to +respite. And thus, instead of confiscating their property, the Company +received without interest (which in such a case had been before charged) +the use of a very large sum of the public money. The revenues are under +the peculiar care of this House, not only as the revenues originate from +us, but as, on every failure if the funds set apart for the support of +the national credit, or to provide for the national strength and safety, +the task of supplying every deficiency falls upon his Majesty's faithful +Commons, this House must, in effect, tax the people. The House, +therefore, at every moment, incurs the hazard of becoming obnoxious to +its constituents.</p> + +<p>The enemies of the late House of Commons resolved, if possible, to bring +on that event. They therefore endeavored to misrepresent the provident +means adopted by the House of Commons for keeping off this invidious +necessity, as an attack on the rights of the East India Company: for +they well knew, that, on the one hand, if, for want of proper regulation +and relief, the Company should become insolvent, or even stop payment, +the national credit and commerce would sustain a heavy blow; and that +calamity would be justly imputed to Parliament, which, after such long +inquiries, and such frequent admonitions from his Majesty, had neglected +so essential and so urgent an article of their duty: on the other hand, +they knew, that, wholly corrupted as the Company is, <a name="Page_573" id="Page_573" title="573" class="pagenum"></a>nothing effectual +could be done to preserve that interest from ruin, without taking for a +time the national objects of their trust out of their hands; and then a +cry would be industriously raised against the House of Commons, as +depriving British subjects of their legal privileges. The restraint, +being plain and simple, must be easily understood by those who would be +brought with great difficulty to comprehend the intricate detail of +matters of fact which rendered this suspension of the administration of +India absolutely necessary on motives of justice, of policy, of public +honor, and public safety.</p> + +<p>The House of Commons had not been able to devise a method by which the +redress of grievances could be effected through the authors of those +grievances; nor could they imagine how corruptions could be purified by +the corrupters and the corrupted; nor do we now conceive how any +reformation can proceed from the known abettors and supporters of the +persons who have been guilty of the misdemeanors which Parliament has +reprobated, and who for their own ill purposes have given countenance to +a false and delusive state of the Company's affairs, fabricated to +mislead Parliament and to impose upon the nation.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67" /><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor" +title="The purpose of the misrepresentation being now completely answered, +there is no doubt but the committee in this Parliament, appointed by the +ministers themselves, will justify the grounds upon which the last Parliament +proceeded, and will lay open to the world the dreadful state of the Company's +affairs, and the grossness of their own calumnies upon this head. By delay the +new assembly is come into the disgraceful situation of allowing a dividend of +eight per cent by act of Parliament, without the least matter before them to +justify the granting of any dividend at all.">[67]</a></p> + +<p>Your Commons feel, with a just resentment, the inadequate estimate which +your ministers have formed <a name="Page_574" id="Page_574" title="574" class="pagenum"></a>of the importance of this great concern. +They call on us to act upon the principles of those who have not +inquired into the subject, and to condemn those who with the most +laudable diligence have examined and scrutinized every part of it. The +deliberations of Parliament have been broken; the season of the year is +unfavorable; many of us are new members, who must be wholly unacquainted +with the subject, which lies remote from the ordinary course of general +information.</p> + +<p>We are cautioned against an infringement of the Constitution; and it is +impossible to know what the secret advisers of the crown, who have +driven out the late ministers for their conduct in Parliament, and have +dissolved the late Parliament for a pretended attack upon prerogative, +will consider as such an infringement. We are not furnished with a rule, +the observance of which can make us safe from the resentment of the +crown, even by an implicit obedience to the dictates of the ministers +who have advised that speech; we know not how soon those ministers may +be disavowed, and how soon the members of this House, for our very +agreement with them, may be considered as objects of his Majesty's +displeasure. Until by his Majesty's goodness and wisdom the late example +is completely done away, we are not free.</p> + +<p>We are well aware, in providing for the affairs of the East, with what +an adult strength of abuse, and of wealth and influence growing out of +that abuse, his Majesty's Commons had, in the last Parliament, and still +have, to struggle. We are sensible that the influence of that wealth, in +a much larger degree and measure than at any former period, may have +<a name="Page_575" id="Page_575" title="575" class="pagenum"></a>penetrated into the very quarter from whence alone any real reformation +can be expected.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68" /><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor" +title="This will be evident to those who consider the number and description of Directors +and servants of the East India Company chosen into the present Parliament. The +light in which the present ministers hold the labors of the House of Commons in +searching into the disorders in the Indian administration, and all its endeavors +for the reformation of the government there, without any distinction of times, +or of the persons concerned, will appear from the following extract from a speech +of the present Lord Chancellor. After making a high-flown panegyric on those +whom the House of Commons had condemned by their resolutions, he said:—"Let us +not be misled by reports from committees of another House, to which, I again repeat, +I pay as much attention as I would do to the history of Robinson Crusoe, Let the +conduct of the East India Company be fairly and fully inquired into. Let it be +acquitted or condemned by evidence brought to the bar of the House. Without +entering very deeply into the subject, let me reply in a few words to an observation +which fell from a noble and learned lord, that the Company's finances are distressed, +and that they owe at this moment a million sterling to the nation. When such a charge +is brought, will Parliament in its justice forget that the Company is restricted from +employing that credit which its great and flourishing situation gives to it?"">[68]</a></p> + +<p>If, therefore, in the arduous affairs recommended to us, our proceedings +should be ill adapted, feeble, and ineffectual,—if no delinquency +should be prevented, and no delinquent should be called to account,—if +every person should be caressed, promoted, and raised in power, in +proportion to the enormity of his offences,—if no relief should be +given to any of the natives unjustly dispossessed of their rights, +jurisdictions, and properties,—if no cruel and unjust exactions should +be forborne,—if the source of no peculation or oppressive gain should +be cut off,—if, by the omission of the opportunities that were in our +hands, our Indian empire should fall into ruin irretrievable, and in its +fall crush the credit and over<a name="Page_576" id="Page_576" title="576" class="pagenum"></a>whelm the revenues of this country,—we +stand acquitted to our honor and to our conscience, who have reluctantly +seen the weightiest interests of our country, at times the most critical +to its dignity and safety, rendered the sport of the inconsiderate and +unmeasured ambition of individuals, and by that means the wisdom of his +Majesty's government degraded in the public estimation, and the policy +and character of this renowned nation rendered contemptible in the eyes +of all Europe.</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>It passed in the negative.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59" /><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> See King's Speech, Dec. 5, 1782, and May 19, 1784.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60" /><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> "I shall never submit to the doctrines I have heard this +day from the woolsack, that the other House [House of Commons] are the +only representatives and guardians of the people's rights. I boldly +maintain the contrary. I say this House [House of Lords] <i>is equally the +representatives of the people</i>."—Lord Shelburne's Speech, April 8, +1778. <i>Vide</i> Parliamentary Register, Vol. X. p. 892.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61" /><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> In that Parliament the House of Commons by two several +resolutions put an end to the American war. Immediately on the change of +ministry which ensued, in order to secure their own independence, and to +prevent the accumulation of new burdens on the people by the growth of a +civil list debt, they passed the Establishment Bill. By that bill +thirty-six offices tenable by members of Parliament were suppressed, and +an order of payment was framed by which the growth of any fresh debt was +rendered impracticable. The debt on the civil list from the beginning of +the present reign had amounted to one million three hundred thousand +pounds and upwards. Another act was passed for regulating the office of +the Paymaster-General and the offices subordinate to it. A million of +public money had sometimes been in the hands of the paymasters: this act +prevented the possibility of any money whatsoever being accumulated in +that office in future. The offices of the Exchequer, whose emoluments in +time of war were excessive, and grew in exact proportion to the public +burdens, were regulated,—some of them suppressed, and the rest reduced +to fixed salaries. To secure the freedom of election against the crown, +a bill was passed to disqualify all officers concerned in the collection +of the revenue in any of its branches from voting in elections: a most +important act, not only with regard to its primary object, the freedom +of election, but as materially forwarding the due collection of revenue. +For the same end, (the preserving the freedom of election,) the House +rescinded the famous judgment relative to the Middlesex election, and +expunged it from the journals. On the principle of reformation of their +own House, connected with a principle of public economy, an act passed +for rendering contractors with government incapable of a seat in +Parliament. The India Bill (unfortunately lost in the House of Lords) +pursued the same idea to its completion, and disabled all servants of +the East India Company from a seat in that House for a certain time, and +until their conduct was examined into and cleared. The remedy of +infinite corruptions and of infinite disorders and oppressions, as well +as the security of the most important objects of public economy, +perished with that bill and that Parliament. That Parliament also +instituted a committee to inquire into the collection of the revenue in +all its branches, which prosecuted its duty with great vigor, and +suggested several material improvements.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62" /><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> If these speculations are let loose, the House of Lords +may quarrel with their share of the legislature, as being limited with +regard to the origination of grants to the crown and the origination of +money bills. The advisers of the crown may think proper to bring its +negative into ordinary use,—and even to dispute, whether a mere +negative, compared with the deliberative power exercised in the other +Houses, be such a share in the legislature as to produce a due balance +in favor of that branch, and thus justify the previous interference of +the crown in the manner lately used. The following will serve to show +how much foundation there is for great caution concerning these novel +speculations. Lord Shelburne, in his celebrated speech, April 8th, 1778, +expresses himself as follows. (<i>Vide</i> Parliamentary Register, Vol. X.) +</p><p> +"The noble and learned lord on the woolsack, in the debate which opened +the business of this day, asserted that your Lordships were incompetent +to make any alteration in a money bill or a bill of supply, I should be +glad to see the matter fairly and fully discussed, and the subject +brought forward and argued upon precedent, as well as all its collateral +relations. I should be pleased to see the question fairly committed, +were it for no other reason but to hear the sleek, smooth contractors +from the other House come to this bar and declare, that they, and they +only, <i>could frame a money bill</i>, and they, and they <i>only</i>, could +dispose of the <i>property of the peers of Great Britain</i>. Perhaps some +arguments more plausible than those I heard this day from the woolsack, +to show that the Commons have an uncontrollable, unqualified right to +bind your Lordships' property, may be urged by them. At present, I beg +leave to differ from the noble and learned lord; for, until the claim, +after a solemn discussion of this House, is openly and directly +relinquished, I shall continue to be of opinion that your Lordships have +a right to after, <i>amend</i>, or reject a money bill." +</p><p> +The Duke of Richmond also, in his letter to the volunteers of Ireland, +speaks of several of the powers exercised by the House of Commons in the +light of usurpations; and his Grace is of opinion, that, when the people +are restored to what he conceives to be their rights, in electing the +House of Commons, the other branches of the legislature ought to be +restored to theirs.—<i>Vide</i> Remembrancer, Vol. XVI.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63" /><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> By an act of Parliament, the Directors of the East India +Company are restrained from acceptance of bills drawn, from India, +beyond a certain amount, without the consent of the Commissioners of the +Treasury. The late House of Commons, finding bills to an immense amount +drawn upon that body by their servants abroad, and knowing their +circumstances to be exceedingly doubtful, came to a resolution +providently, cautioning the Lords of the Treasury against the acceptance +of these bills, until the House should otherwise direct. The Court Lords +then took occasion to declare against the resolution as illegal, by the +Commons undertaking to direct in the execution of a trust created by act +of Parliament. The House, justly alarmed at this resolution, which went +to the destruction of the whole of its superintending capacity, and +particularly in matters relative to its own province of money, directed +a committee to search the journals, and they found a regular series of +precedents, commencing from the remotest of those records, and carried +on to that day, by which it appeared that the House interfered, by an +authoritative advice and admonition, upon every act of executive +government without exception, and in many much stronger cases than that +which the Lords thought proper to quarrel with.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64" /><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> "I observe, at the same time, that there is <i>no charge or +complaint</i> suggested against my present ministers."—The King's Answer, +25th February, 1784, to the Address of the House of Common. <i>Vide</i> +Resolutions of the House of Commons, printed for Debrett, p. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65" /><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> The territorial possessions in the East Indies were +acquired to the Company, in virtue of grants from the Great Mogul, in +the nature of offices and jurisdictions, to be held under <i>him</i>, and +dependent upon <i>his</i> crown, with the express condition of being obedient +to orders from <i>his</i> court, and of paying an annual tribute to <i>his</i> +treasury. It is true that no obedience is yielded to these orders, and +for some time past there has been no payment made of this tribute. But +it is under a grant so conditioned that they still hold. To subject the +King of Great Britain as tributary to a foreign power by the acts of his +subjects; to suppose the grant valid, and yet the condition void; to +suppose it good for the king, and insufficient for the Company; to +suppose it an interest divisible between the parties: these are some few +of the many legal difficulties to be surmounted, before the Common Law +of England can acknowledge the East India Company's Asiatic affairs to +be a subject matter of <i>prerogative</i>, so as to bring it within the verge +of English jurisprudence. It is a very anomalous species of power and +property which is held by the East India Company. Our English +prerogative law does not furnish principles, much less precedents, by +which it can be defined or adjusted. Nothing but the eminent dominion of +Parliament over every British subject, in every concern, and in every +circumstance in which he is placed, can adjust this new, intricate +matter. Parliament may act wisely or unwisely, justly or unjustly; but +Parliament alone is competent to it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66" /><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> The attempt upon charters and the privileges of the +corporate bodies of the kingdom in the reigns of Charles the Second and +James the Second was made by the <i>crown</i>. It was carried on by the +ordinary course of law, in courts instituted for the security of the +property and franchises of the people. This attempt made by the <i>crown</i> +was attended with complete success. The corporate rights of the city of +London, and of all the companies it contains, were by solemn judgment of +law declared forfeited, and all their franchises, privileges, +properties, and estates were of course seized into the hands of the +<i>crown</i>. The injury was from the crown: the redress was by Parliament. A +bill was brought into the <i>House of Commons</i>, by which the judgment +against the city of London, and against the companies, was reversed: and +this bill passed the House of Lords without any complaint of trespass on +their jurisdiction, although the bill was for a reversal of a judgment +in law. By this act, which is in the second of William and Mary, chap. +8, the question of forfeiture of that charter is forever taken out of +the power of any court of law: no cognizance can be taken of it except +in Parliament. +</p><p> +Although the act above mentioned has declared the judgment against the +corporation of London to be <i>illegal</i> yet Blackstone makes no scruple of +asserting, that, "perhaps, in strictness of law, the proceedings in most +of them [the Quo Warranto causes] were sufficiently regular," leaving it +in doubt, whether this regularity did not apply to the corporation of +London, as well as to any of the rest; and he seems to blame the +proceeding (as most blamable it was) not so much on account of +illegality as for the crown's having employed a legal proceeding for +political purposes. He calls it "an exertion of <i>an act of law</i> for the +purposes of the state." +</p><p> +The same security which was given to the city of London, would have been +extended to all the corporations, if the House of Commons could have +prevailed. But the bill for that purpose passed but by a majority of one +in the Lords; and it was entirely lost by a prorogation, which is the +act of the crown. Small, indeed, was the security which the corporation +of London enjoyed before the act of William and Mary, and which all the +other corporations, secured by no statute, enjoy at this hour, if strict +law was employed against them. The use of strict law has always been +rendered very delicate by the same means by which the almost unmeasured +legal powers residing (and in many instances dangerously residing) in +the crown are kept within due bounds: I mean, that strong superintending +power in the House of Commons which inconsiderate people have been +prevailed on to condemn as trenching on prerogative. Strict law is by no +means such a friend to the rights of the subject as they have been +taught to believe. They who have been most conversant in this kind of +learning will be most sensible of the danger of submitting corporate +rights of high political importance to these subordinate tribunals. The +general heads of law on that subject are vulgar and trivial. On them +there is not much question. But it is far from easy to determine what +special acts, or what special neglect of action, shall subject +corporations to a forfeiture. There is so much laxity in this doctrine, +that great room is left for favor or prejudice, which might give to the +crown an entire dominion over those corporations. On the other hand, it +is undoubtedly true that every subordinate corporate right ought to be +subject to control, to superior direction, and even to forfeiture upon +just cause. In this reason and law agree. In every judgment given on a +corporate right of great political importance, the policy and prudence +make no small part of the question. To these considerations a court of +law is not competent; and, indeed, an attempt at the least intermixture +of such ideas with the matter of law could have no other effect than +wholly to corrupt the judicial character of the court in which such a +cause should come to be tried. It is besides to be remarked, that, if, +in virtue of a legal process, a forfeiture should be adjudged, the court +of law has no power to modify or mitigate. The whole franchise is +annihilated, and the corporate property goes into the hands of the +crown. They who hold the new doctrines concerning the power of the House +of Commons ought well to consider in such a case by what means the +corporate rights could be revived, or the property could be recovered +out of the hands of the crown. But Parliament can do what the courts +neither can do nor ought to attempt. Parliament is competent to give due +weight to all political considerations. It may modify, it may mitigate, +and it may render perfectly secure, all that it does not think fit to +take away. It is not likely that Parliament will ever draw to itself the +cognizance of questions concerning ordinary corporations, farther than +to protect them, in case attempts are made to induce a forfeiture of +their franchises. +</p><p> +The case of the East India Company is different even from that of the +greatest of these corporations. No monopoly of trade, beyond their own +limits, is vested in the corporate body of any town or city in the +kingdom. Even within these limits the monopoly is not general. The +Company has the monopoly of the trade of half the world. The first +corporation of the kingdom has for the object of its jurisdiction only a +few matters of subordinate police. The East India Company governs an +empire, through all its concerns and all its departments, from the +lowest office of economy to the highest councils of state,—an empire to +which Great Britain is in comparison but a respectable province. To +leave these concerns without superior cognizance would be madness; to +leave them to be judged in the courts below, on the principles of a +confined jurisprudence, would be folly. It is well, if the whole +legislative power is competent to the correction of abuses which are +commensurate to the immensity of the object they affect. The idea of an +absolute power has, indeed, its terrors; but that objection lies to +every Parliamentary proceeding; and as no other can regulate the abuses +of such a charter, it is fittest that sovereign authority should be +exercised, where it is most likely to be attended with the most +effectual correctives. These correctives are furnished by the nature and +course of Parliamentary proceedings, and by the infinitely diversified +characters who compose the two Houses. In effect and virtually, they +form a vast number, variety, and succession of judges and jurors. The +fulness, the freedom, and publicity of discussion leaves it easy to +distinguish what are acts of power, and what the determinations of +equity and reason. There prejudice corrects prejudice, and the different +asperities of party zeal mitigate and neutralize each other. So far from +violence being the general characteristic of the proceedings of +Parliament, whatever the beginnings of any Parliamentary process may be, +its general fault in the end is, that it is found incomplete and +ineffectual.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67" /><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> The purpose of the misrepresentation being now completely +answered, there is no doubt but the committee in this Parliament, +appointed by the ministers themselves, will justify the grounds upon +which the last Parliament proceeded, and will lay open to the world the +dreadful state of the Company's affairs, and the grossness of their own +calumnies upon this head. By delay the new assembly is come into the +disgraceful situation of allowing a dividend of eight per cent by act of +Parliament, without the least matter before them to justify the granting +of any dividend at all.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68" /><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> This will be evident to those who consider the number and +description of Directors and servants of the East India Company chosen +into the present Parliament. The light in which the present ministers +hold the labors of the House of Commons in searching into the disorders +in the Indian administration, and all its endeavors for the reformation +of the government there, without any distinction of times, or of the +persons concerned, will appear from the following extract from a speech +of the present Lord Chancellor. After making a high-flown panegyric on +those whom the House of Commons had condemned by their resolutions, he +said:—"Let us not be misled by reports from committees of <i>another</i> +House, to which, I again repeat, <i>I pay as much attention as I would do +to the history of Robinson Crusoe,</i> Let the conduct of the East India +Company be fairly and fully inquired into. Let it be acquitted or +condemned by evidence brought to the bar of the House. Without entering +very deeply into the subject, let me reply in a few words to an +observation which fell from a noble and learned lord, that the Company's +finances are distressed, and that they owe at this moment a million +sterling to the nation. When such a charge is brought, will Parliament +in its justice forget that the Company is restricted from employing +<i>that credit which its great and flourishing situation</i> gives to it?"</p></div> + +</div> + +<h3>END OF VOL. II.</h3> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of the Right Honourable +Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12), by Edmund Burke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF BURKE, VOL. 2 *** + +***** This file should be named 15198-h.htm or 15198-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/9/15198/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, Susan Skinner and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team from images generously made available by the +Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at +http://gallica.bnf.fr + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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