they might not endanger the crown perhaps, but they would render it not worth the wearing.

The cause of America is allied to every true Whig. They will not bear the enslaving America. Some Whigs may love their fortunes better than their principles; but the body of Whigs will join; they will not enslave America. The whole Irish nation, all the true English Whigs, the whole nation of America, these combined make many millions of Whigs, averse to the system. France has her full attention upon you; war is at your door; carrying a question here, will not save your country in such extremities.

This being the state of things, my advice is, to proceed to allay heats; I would at the instant begin, and do something towards allaying and softening resentment.

My motion, you see, respects the army, and their dangerous situation. Not to undervalue general Gage, who has served with credit, he acts upon his instructions; if he has not been alert enough to shed blood

Non dimicare quam vincere maluit,

And he judged well. The Americans too have acted with a -prudence and moderation, that had been worthy of our imitation, were we wise;-to their moderation it is owing, that our troops have so long remained in safety.

Mal-administration has run its line-it has not a move left -it is a check-mate.

Forty thousand men are not adequate to the idea of subduing them to your taxation. Taxation exists only in representation; take them to your heart, who knows what their generosity may effect?

I am not to be understood as meaning a naked, unconditioned repeal; no, I would maintain the superiority of this country at all events.

But your are anxious who shall disarm first. That great poet, and perhaps a wiser and greater politician than ever he was a poet, has given you wisest council, follow it,

Tuque prior, tu parce; genus qui ducis Olympo.

Projice tela manu,

Who is the man who will own this system of force as practicable?

He then justly censured the folly of pursuing a system that was owned to be impracticable.

His Lordship's motion was, "That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, most humbly to advise and beseech his Majesty, that, in order to open the ways towards an happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, by be

ginning

ginning to allay ferments and soften animosities there; and, above all, for preventing in the mean time, any sudden and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily irritation of an army before their eyes, posted in their town, it may graciously please his Majesty, that immediate orders may be dispatched to general Gage for removing his Majesty's forces from the town of Boston, as soon as the rigour of the season, and other circumstances indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said tronps may render the same practicable."

The Earl of Suffolk. His Lordship condemned the conduct of the Americans in the most determined and unreserved terms. He, complimented the noble Earl, who opened the debate, on his great abilities, but begged leave to pronounce him mistaken, in almost every position he laid down; and thought it extremely improper, considering the present alarming state of America, to cause divisions, and, by so doing, to weaken the force of the parent state. He observed, that the noble Earl had animadverted severely on those who had, or were supposed to advise the measure of dissolving the parliament; and had likewise thrown out some insinua tions, directed against the supposed authors of the present intentions of administration. As to the first he avowed himself to be one of the principal advisers, as he looked upon it, nay foresaw from the beginning, that all the steps taken by the Americans, in congress and elsewhere, would be to influence the general election, by creating jealousies, fears, and prejudices among the mercantile and trading part of the nation; that happily the ideas he espoused had prevailed, by which means those sinister designs were prevented from taking effect; that he was happy to find his conjectures right, and to perceive that those designs were defeated; and that an improper influence, originating whence it might, or in whatever manner, made very little difference. As to the point of advice, in relation to coercive measures, he very frankly declared himself to be equally strenuous; for all conciliating means having proved ineffectual, he thought it high time for the mother country to exert her authority, or for ever relinquish it. If the task be difficult now, what must it be in a few years time? Parliament must be obeyed, or it must not; if it be obeyed, then who shall resist its determinations? If it be not, then we may as well at once give up every claim of authority over America. I should scorn to be present in this House, and sit still without freely. declaring my sentiments: I should scorn to continue one

of

of his Majesty's ministers, and not advise coerceive measures, when I was so firmly and fully convinced of their necessity; and I take a particular pride in avowing those sentiments; and mean steadily to abide by them at all events. His Lord+ ship, then proceeded to comment on the proceedings of the congress, in relation to their disapprobation of certain acts of parliament, particularly the four or five last adverted to at that meeting. He defended them all, and contended, that the Boston port bill, if the obstinacy of the Bostonians had not prevented it, would have executed itself, as a satisfac tion for the dommagement done, to the East India Company, would have at once put the port of Boston on its former footing, and have of course made an opening for a compleat reconciliation. He insisted strongly that the mother country should never relax till America confessed her supremacy; and that as soon as America had dutifully complied, she would meet with every indulgence consistent with the real interest of both countries; but that any concession on our parts, till the right on which all our pretensions were founded, was allowed, would be to the last degree impolitic, pusillanimous, and absurd. He supposed, he said, that the noble Earl would be alone in his opinion, that this country had not the right to tax America. The right implied, according to him, the ne cessity of the exercise of it. He thought it a duty incum bent on administration to pursue their object of subduing the refractory rebellious Americans; and avowed the ministerial resolution of enforcing obedience by arms.

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The Lord Wycombe, (Earl of Shelburne). His Lordship began with renouncing all personal engagements whatever; and solemnly declared, that he adopted the noble Earl's sentiments, (the Earl of Chatham) solely on account of their wisdom, justice, and propriety. He said, the specious language of the supremacy of the British legislature, the inte rests of Great-Britain, of her authority over the colonies, &c. was artfully held out to delude and deceive. both parliament and people: it was intended to operate on every degree of men: the very cobler is, he says, swelled up with his own importance, as being a party in a contest with those on the other side, who are as artfully represented to be ready to throw off all obedience; who are described to be traitors, vagabonds, and rebels, guilty of the most flagrant baseness and ingratitude. But sure, says his lordship, there is not a noble lord within these walls, there is not a man without, who does not instantly perceive the notorious fallacy of such a misrepresentation. No man can be at a loss to know, that

a majority of both Houses, however constituted, are the na tion; that that majority is led and directed by an administration consisting of four or five persons; and those again, by one man. Let us, therefore, hear no more of the people, the parliament, or Great Britain; but consider the issue as simply depending between the parties thus described, between administration on one side, and all America on the other. He then proceeded to animadvert with great ability on the several acts of the last session respecting America; and contended without reserve, that the Boston port bill did not execute itself, nor was ever meant so to do; for supposing the dommagement to be repaired, and the injury sustained by the East-India Company compensated, what did the act say? Why, that when his Majesty should think that the Bostonians had returned to their obedience, and peace and good government fully established, his Majesty might open the port on such conditions as he thought proper; and appoint such places for the landing and shipping of goods within the said port and harbour as he pleased. Here he highly arraigned the unconstitutional policy which dictated that part of the act, and wantonly lodged a power in the King and council, which parliament, if it regarded its own honour, should have never parted with. He condemned in general, the madness, injustice, and infatuation of coercing the Americans into a blind and servile submission; and repeated, what had been received in the most ludicrous manner, on a former occasion, that a tipstaff would execute the acts better than a military force consisting of a hundred thousand men.

The Lord Lyttelton set out with complimenting the noble Earl, who first spoke in the debate, on his great political wisdom, his extensive talents, and the fruits of both, the glorious successes of the late war, which must deservedly crown him with immortal laurels. He grounded his arguments chiefly on the legislative supremacy of the British parliament. He ridiculed the absurd idea of an inactive right, when there was the most apparent and urgent necessity for exercising it. It would be a madness in the extreme, not directly to assert, or for ever relinquish it. He could not, he said, at all agree with the noble Earl in his encomiums on the continental congress; for so far from applauding their wisdom, &c. he contended, that the whole of their deliberations and proceedings breathed the spirit of unconstitutional independency and open rebellion. His lordship pointed to the particular. language of some of their resolutions; and endeavoured

endeavoured to prove, that if Great Britain should give, way on the present occasion, from mistaken motives of present advantages in trade, commerce, &c. such a concession would inevitably defeat its own object; for it was plain, that the navigation act, and all other regulatory acts, which formed the great basis on which those advantages rested, and the true interests of both countries depended, would fall a victim to the interested and ambitious views of America. Now, therefore, was the time to assert the authority of Great Britain, for if we did not, he had not a single doubt on his own mind, but every concession on our side would produce a new demand on theirs; and in the end, bring about that state of traitorous independency, at which it was too plain they were now aiming. He lamented the disgraceful miserable state of the troops under General Gage, daily crumbling away with sickness and desertion, destitute of covering and sustenance, and, what was much worse, their spirits broken and themselves disheartened with the insolent taunts and repeated provocations of a rebellious surrounding rabble. He reflected severely on the conduct of those, that put him and kept him in so disgraceful a situation. He said, he should be glad to know by what secret power- or over-ruling influence the wishes of parliament had been defeated. On the other hand, if it was from that gentleman's own suggestions he acted, he freely declared, that however prevalent it might be, from every side of the House, to bestow encomiums on him, he must continue to think his conduct extremely reprehensible, and deserving of censure. His Lordship disclaimed all personal connection with administration. He said he supported them, because he imagined and believed them to be right.

The Lord Camden. His Lordship said he would not enter into the large field of discussion, or collateral reasoning, applicable to the abstruse and metaphysical distinctions neces sary to the investigation of the omnipotence of parliament; but this he would venture to assert, that the natural right of mankind, and the immutable laws of justice, were clearly in favour of the Americans. He observed that great stress had been laid on the legislative supremacy of Great Britain; and, as far as the doctrine was directed to its proper objects, it was a just one; but it was no less true in fact, that consonant to all the reasonings of all the speculative writers on government, that no man, either agreeable to the true principles of natural or civil liberty, could be divested of any part of his property without his own consent. He pledged him

self,