ill effect, being wrote by a private individual te this convention, and thereupon it is resolved, That his friend and relation, a person who had not the the said James Christie, by the said letter, hath power, if he had the inclination, and who, fron manifested a spirit and principle altogether inimical regard to his own private interest, and from the to the rights and liberties of America: That the ties of blood (his wife, family and fortune being said James Christie, by insinuating the necessity in this country) cannot be supposed to be active of introducing a military force into this province, in devising measures to crush the liberties there-as manifested an inveterate enmity to the liberties of; and in the most solemn manner your memorialist of this province in particular, and of British Ameavers, that he never harbored a wish to introduce rica in general.

a military force into this province for the purpose Therefore, resolved, That the said James Christie of enslaving the inhabitants thereof. And your is and ought to be considered as an enemy to Ame. memorialist begs leave to add, that he is extremely rica, and that no person trade, deal, or barter sorry that his private opinion should have given with him hereafter, unless for necessaries and proany offence; he was far from intending any; he con- visions, or for the sale or purchase of any part of sidered himself as writing to a friend in confidence, his real or personal estate, of which he may be at and had no expectation or wish, that such private this time seized or possessed. opinions would ever appear in public, or be pro ductive of any public measures whatever.

Resolved, Thai the said James Christie deposite in the hands of this convention, or into the hands

Resolved, That the said James Christie be expelled and banished this province forever, and that That the said committee having referred all fur-he depart this province before the first day of ther proceedings on your memorialist's case to the September next. gentlemen delegated by this province to the continental congress, and they having referred the same to the consideration of this convention, obliges your memorialist to make this application, bumbly to request that this honorable convention will consider your memorialist's case, and discharge your memorialist and his securities from the said obligation, and also grant permission to your memorialist to depart the province with all convenience, without molestation in person or perty.

of such person or persons as they shall appoint, the sum of five hundred pounds sterling, to be expended occasionally towards his proportion of all charges and expenses incurred or to be incurred for the defence of America, during the present contest with Great Britain; the overplus, if any, after a reconciliation shall happily be effected, to pro-be restored to the said James Christie.

Your memorialist, relying on the wisdom and humanity of this honorable convention, most cheer. fully submits his case to their decision, humbly praying,

Resolved, That no punishment be inflicted on the said James Christie, other than what is now directed by this convention.

Resolved, That the five hundred pounds sterling is to be paid in sterling, or other money at par. That the blessings of peace and tranquility may be restored to every part of the British empire; Resolved, That the resolutions of the committee that the rights and privileges of America may be of Baltimore county are, by the determinations of established on a firm and lasting basis, and a speedy this convention superseded, and that therefore the and honorable reconciliation take place between the parent state and her colonies, is the sincere wish of your memorialist.

JAMES CHRISTIE, jun.

Baltimore, July 27, 1775.

said James Christie may negociate his bills of exchange; and that he may assign, or he, or any person for him, may collect the debts due to him, in the same manner as other persons may negociate their bills of exchange, assign or collect their debts. Signed, by order of the convention,

G. DUVALL, clerk.

And upon reading the letter of the said James Christie therein referred to, dated the 22d of February, 1775, to Gabriel Christie, lieut. colonel of the 60th regiment, in which the said Christie represented the inhabitants of that town as concerned in measures, in his opinion, treasonable and rebellious, and that a number of soldiers would I hope, sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity keep them very quiet, the same was considered by of the chair, your good nature will incline you to

The speech of EDMUND Bunke, esq. on moving his resolutions for conciliation with the colonies, March 22, 1775.

some degree of indulgence towards human frailty from being blown about by every wind of fashionaYou will not think it unnatural, that those who ble doctrine. I really did not think it safe, or have an object depending, which strongly engages manly, to have fresh principles to seek upon every their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined fresh mail which should arrive from America. 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.* I do confess I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. I look upon it as 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 Parliament, sir, having an enlarged view of obflight forever, we are at this very instant nearly as jects, made, during this interval, more frequent free to choose a plan for our American government, changes in their sentiments and their conduct, than as we were on the first day of the session. If, sir, could be justified in a particular person upon the we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at contracted scale of private information. But all embarrassed (unless we please to make our-though I do not hazard any thing approaching to selves so) by any incongruous mixture of coercion a censure on the motives of former parliaments to and restraint. We are therefore called upon, as all those alterations, one fact is undoubted, that unit were by a superior warning voice, again to attend der them the state of America has been kept in to America; to attend to the whole of it together; continual agitation. Every thing administered as and to review the subject with an unusual degree remedy to the public complaint, if it did not pro. of care and calmness. duce, 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.

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 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.

Surely it is an awful subject; or there is none so on this side of the grave. When I first had the honor of 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 In this posture, sir, things stood at the beginning very high trust; and having no sort of reason to of the session. About that time a worthy* memrely on the strength of my natural abilities for the ber, of great parliamentary experience, who, in the proper execution of that trust, I was obliged to year 1766, filled the chair of the American comtake more than common pains, to instruct myself mittee with much ability, took me aside; and in every thing which relates to our colonies. lamenting the present aspect of the politics, told was not less under the necessity of forming some me things were come to such a pass, that our fixed ideas, concerning the general policy of the former methods of proceeding in the house would British empire. Something of this sort seemed to be no longer tolerated. That the public tribunal be indispensable, in order, amidst so vast a fluctua. (never too indulgent to a long and unsuccessful tion of passions and opinions, to concenter my opposition) would now scrutinize our conduct with thoughts; to ballast my conduct; to preserve me unusual severity. That the very vicissitudes and shiftings of ministerial measures, instead of con. *The act to restrain the trade and commerce of victing their authors of inconstancy and want of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New. Hampshire, and colonies of Connecticut and Rhode. system, would be taken as an occasion of charging Island, and Providence Plantation, in North Ame-us with a pre-determined discontent, which nothing rica, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British could satisfy; whilst we accused every measure of islands in the West-Indies; and to prohibit such

provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishery vigour as cruel, and every proposal of lenity as on the banks of Newfoundland and other places weak and irresolute. The public, he said, would thereis mentioned, under certain conditions and

limitations.

*Mr. Rose Fuller.

not have patience to see us play the game out with a reasonable proposition, because it had nothing our adversaries; we must produce our hand. It but its reason to recommend it. On the other would be expected, that those who for many years hand, being totally destitute of all shadow of influhad been active in such affairs should shew that ence, natural or adventitions, I was very sure that, they had formed some clear and decided idea of if my proposition were futile or dangerous, if it the principles of colony government; and were were weakly conceived, or improperly timed, there capable of drawing out something like a platform was nothing exterior to it, of power to awe, dazzle, of the ground, which might be laid for future and or delude you. You will see it just as it is, and permanent tranquility. you will treat it just as it deserves.

I felt the truth of what my hon. friend repre The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war. sented; but I felt my situation too. His application Not peace to be hunted through might have been made with far greater propriety the labyrinth of intricate and endless negocia to many other gentlemen. No man was indeed tions. Not peace to arise out of universal discord, ever better disposed, or worse qualified, for such fomented from principle in ali parts of the eman undertaking than myself. Though I gave so pire. Not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions; or the precise far into his opinion that I immediately threw my thoughts into a sort of parliamentary form, I was inarking the shadowy boundaries of a complex goby no means equally ready to produce them. It verniment. It is simple peace, sought in its natural generally argues some degree of natural impotence course, and its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the to hazard plans of government, except from a seat difference, and by restoring the former unsuspectof authority. Propositions are made, not only ing confidence of the colonies in the mother coun ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably, when the minds of men are not properly disposed for their try, to give permanent satisfaction to your people; and (far from a scheme of ruling by discord) to reception; and, for my part, I am not ambitious of reconcile them to each other in the same act, and ridicule; nor absolutely a candidate for disgrace. by the bond of the very same interest, which recon

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 cement

Besides, sir, to speak the plain truth, I have inciles them to British government. general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of pa per government; nor of any politics, 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 decoruming principle. My plan, therefore, being formed 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 per

son.

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

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 pro. ject, which has been lately laid upon your table by the noble lord in the blue riband. It does

*That, when the governor, council or assembly, or general court, of any of his majesty's provinces vision, according to the condition, circumstances or colonies in America, shall propose to make proand situation of such province or colony, for con tribu ing their proportion to the common defence of the general court, or general assembly, of such (such proportion to be raised under the authority province or colony, and disposable by parliament) and shall engage to make provision also for the tion of justice, in such province or colony, it will support of the civil government, and the administra be proper, if such proposal shall be approved by

not propose to fill your lobby with squ.bbling always imply concession on the one part or on the colony agents, who will require the interposition other. In this state of things I make no difficulty of your mace, at every instant, to keep the peace in affirming that the proposal ought to originate amongst them. It does not institute a magnificent from us. Great and acknowledged force is not auction of finance, where captivated provinces impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an uncome to general ransom by bidding against each willingness to exert itself. The superior power other, until you knock down the hammer, and may offer peace with honor and with safety. Such determine a proportion of payments, beyond all the an offer, from such a power, will be attributed to powers of algebra to equalize and settle. magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear. When such a one is

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.

The plan, which I shall presume to suggest, derives, however, one great advantage from the disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his superior, 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.

The capital leading questions, on which you must this day decide, are these two. First, whether you 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 house has gone farther, it has declared con. the liberty of observing to you) some ground. But ciliation admissible, previous to any submission on I am sensible that a good deal more is still to be the part of America. It has even shot a good deal done. Indeed, sir, to enable us to determine both beyond that mark, and has admitted that the comon the one and the other of these great questions, plaints of our former mode of exerting the right of with a firm and precise judgment, I think it may taxation were not wholly unfounded. That right be necessary to consider distinctly the true nature thus exerted is allowed to have had something reand the peculiar circumstances of the object which prehensible in it; something unwise, or something we have before us. Because, after all our struggle, grievous; since, in the midst of our heat and resent whether we will or not, we must govern America ment, we of offrselves have proposed a capital according to that nature, and to those circumalteration; and, in order to get rid of what seemed stances, and not according to our own imaginaso very exceptionable, have instituted a mode that tions; not according to abs'ract ideas of right; by is altogether new; one that is, indeed, wholly alieno means according to mere general theories of from all the ancient methods and forms of parlia government, the resort of which appears to me, in Our present situation, no better than arrant trifling. I shall therefore endeavor, with your leave, to lay The principle of this proceeding is large enough before you some of the most material of these cir. for my purpose. The means proposed by the noble cumstances, in as full and as clear a manner as I lord for carrying his ideas into execution, I think, am able to state them. indeed, are very indifferen ly suited to the end; and this I shall endeavor to shew you before I sit down. The first thing that we have to consider, with But, for the present, I take my ground on the regard to the nature of the object, is the number admitted principle. I mean to give peace. of pe ple in the colonies. I have taken for some implies reconciliation; and, where there has been 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

ment.

P&C

a material dispute, reconciliation does in a manner

his majesty, and the two houses of parliament, and European blood and color, besides at least 500,000 for so long as such provision shall be made accord ingly, to forbear, in respect of such province or others, who form no inconsiderable part of the colony, to levy any duty, tax, or assessment, or to strength and opulence of the whole. This, sir, is, impose any further duty, tax, or assessment, except believe, about the true number. There is no such duties as i may be expedient to continue t levy or impose for the regulation of commerce; the occasion to exaggerate where plain truth is of so neat produce of the duties last mentioned to be much weight and importance But whether I put Carried to the account of such provi ce or colony the present numbers too high or too low, is a respectively." Resolutions moved by lord Nort in the committee, and agreed to by the house, 27 matter of little moment. Such is the strength Feb. 1775. with which population shoots in that part of the

world, that state the numbers as high as we will somewhat different from his. There is, if I mistake whilst the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends.not, a point of view from whence, if you will look Whilst we are discussing any given magnitude, at this subject, it is impossible that it should not they are grown to it. Whilst we spend our time in make an impression upon you. 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.

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, I put this consideration of the present and the s it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade growing numbers in the front of our deliberation; of England to all parts of the world (the colonies because, sir, this consideration will make it evident included) in the year 1704. They are from good to a blunter discernment than yours, that no partial, vouchers; the latter period from the accounts on narrow, contracted, pinched, occasional system will your table, the earlier from an original manuscript be at all suitable to such an object. It will shew of Davenant, who first established the inspector. you that it is not to be considered as one of those general's office, which has been ever since his "minima," which are out of the eye and considera-time so abundant a source of parliamentary informa tion of the law; not a paltry excresence of the state; tion. 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 wil shew 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.

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 consiler these three deno ninations to be, what in effect they are, one trade.

The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood thus:

Exports to North America and the West-
Indies,
To Africa,

But the population of this country, the great and growing population, though a very important consideration, will lose much of its weight if not com bined with other circumstances. The commerce of your colonies is out of all proportion beyond the numbers of the people. This ground of their commerce indeed has been trod some days ago, and with great ability, by a distinguished person 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 To North America, and the Westcharacters of his age, he has added a consummate Indies, knowledge in the commercial interest of his coun-To Africa, try, formed by a long course of enlightened and To which if you add the export trade to discriminating experience.

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

*Mr. Glover.

£483 265

86,665

56,930

In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between the highest and the lowest of those lately laid on your table, the accounts were as follows:

£4,791,734

866,398

and from Scotland, which had in 1704
no existence,

364,000

6,022,132

From five hundred and odd thousands, it has grown to six millions; it has increased no less than twelvefold. This is the state of the colony trade,