jurisprudence. It should seem, to my way of con Will it not teach them that the government, against ceiving such matters, that there is a very wide which a claim of liberty is tantamount to high difference in reason and policy, between the mode of treason, is a government to which submission is proceeding on the irregular conduct of scattered equivalent to slavery? It may not always be quite individuals, or even of bands of men, who disturb convenient to impress dependent communities with order within the state, and the civil dissentions such an idea. which may, from time to time, on great questions, We are, indeed, in all disputes with the coloagitate the several communities which compose a nies, by the necessity of things, the judge. It is great empire. It locks to me to be narrow and true, sir. But I confess that the character of judge pedantic, to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal in my own cause, is a thing that frightens me.--justice to this great public contest. I do not know Instead of filling me with pride, I am exceedingly the method of drawing up an indictment against humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a stern, a whole people. I cannot insult and ridicule the assured, judicial character. I must have these feelings of millions of my fellow creatures, as sir hesitations as long as I am compelled to recollect, Edward Coke insulted one excellent individual that, in my little reading upon such contests as (sir Walter Rawleigh) at the bar. I am not ripe these, the sense of mankind has, at least, as often to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies, decided against the superior as the subordinate entrusted 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; fur minds tinctured with humanity, not mild and merciful. 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 exercises 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 the complexity of human affairs, into strange situa tions; but justice is the same, let the judge be in what situation he will. Perhaps, sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an em pire, as distinguished from a single state or king. dom. But my idea of it is this, that an empire is the aggregate of many states under one common of right, and a culprit before me, while I sit as a head; whether this head be a monarch or a presid-criminal judge, on acts of his whose moral quality ing republic. It does, in such constitutions, f e- is to be decided upon the merits of that very quently happen (and nothing but the dismal, cold, litigation. Men are every now and then put, by dead uniformity of servitude can prevent its hap pening) that the subordinate parts have many local privileges and immunities. Between these privileges, and the supreme common authority, the There is, sir, also a circumstance which conline may be extremely nice. Of course disputes, vinces me that this mode of criminal proceeding often too, very bitter disputes, and much ill-blood, is not (at least in the present stage of our contest) will arise. But though every privilege is an altogether expedient; which is nothing less than exemption (in the case) from the ordinary exer- the conduct of those very persons who have seemed cise of the supreme authority, it is no denial of it. to adopt that mode, by lately declaring a rebellion The claim of privilege seems rather, ex vi termini, in Massachusetts' Bay, as they had formerly ad. to imply a superior power. For to talk of the pri dressed to have traitors brought hither under an vileges of a state, or of a person, who has no su act of Henry the eighth for trial. For though perior, is hardly any better than speaking nonsense. rebellion is declared, it is not proceeded against Now, in such unfortunate quarrels, among the as such; nor have any steps been taken towards component parts of a great political union of com-the apprehension or conviction of any individual munities, I can scarcely conceive any thing more offender, either on our late or our former address; completely imprudent, than for the head of the em- but modes of public coercion have been adopted, pire to insist, that if any privilege is pleaded and such as have much more resemblance to a against his will, or his acts, that his whole au sort of qualified hostility towards an independent thority is denied, instantly to proclaim rebellion; power than the punishment of rebellious subjects, to beat to arms, and to put the offending provinces All this seems rather inconsistent, but it shews under the ban. Will not this, sir, very soon teach how difficult it is to apply these juridical ideas to the provinces to make no distinctions on their part? our present case. 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 crimi nal 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. In this situation, let us seriously and coolly on the contrary, a right of taxation is necessarily ponder. What is it we have got by all our menaces, involved in the general principle of legislation, and which have been many and ferocious? What ad- inseparable from the ordinary supreme power?— vantage have we derived from the penal laws we These are deep questions, where great names have passed, and which, for the time, have been militate against each other; where reason is per. severe and numerous? What advances have we plexed, and an appeal to authorities only thickens made towards our object by the sending of a force the confusion. For high and reverend authorities which, by land and sea, is no contemptible strength? lift up their heads on both sides, and there is no Has the disorder abated? Nothing less.-When I sure footing in the middle. This point is the see things in this situation, after such confident great Serbonian bog, betwixt Damiata and Mount hopes, bold promises, and active exertions, I can- Cassius old, where armies whole have sunk. I do no, for my life, avoid a suspicion that the plan itself not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though is not correctly right. 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 may do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tells 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 gran? Or does it lessen the grace or dignity of relaxing in If we adopt this mode, if we mean to conciliate the exercise of an odious claim, because you have and concede, let us see of what nature the con- your evidence room full of titles, and all those cession ought to be? To ascertain the nature of arms? Of what avail are they, when the reason of our concession, we must look at their complaint. the thing tells me, that the assertion of title is the The colonies complain that they have not the loss of my suit; and that I could do nothing but characteristic mark and seal of British freedom. wound myself by the use of my own weapons? 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 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 satisfac-posterity, to all generations; yet I should hold my tion. Such is stedfastly 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 self obliged to conform to the temper I found universally prevalent in my own day, and to govern two millions of men, impatient of servitude, on the principles of freedom. I am not determining a point of law; I am restoring tranquility, 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. 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 con. My idea, therefore, without considering whether sideration is narrow, confined, and wholly limited we yield as matter of right, or grant as matter of to the policy of the question. I do not examine, favor, is to admit the people of our colonies into whether the giving away a man's money be a an interest in the constitution; and, by recording power excepted and reserved out of the general that admission in the journals of parliament, to give trust of government, and how far all mankind, in them as strong an assurance as the nature of the all forms of polity, are entitled to an exercise of thing will admit, that we mean forever to adhere to that right by the charter of nature. Or whether, that solemn declaration of systematic indulgence. Some years ago the repeal of a revenue act, up- the advocates of colony taxes to a clear admission on its understood principle, might have served to of the futility of the scheme, then, sir, the sleeping shew that we intended an unconditional abatement trade laws revive from their trance; and this, unless of the exercise of a taxing power. Such a mea-taxation is to be kept sacred, not for its own sake, sure was then sufficient to remove all suspicion, but as a counterguard and security of the laws of and to give perfect content. But unfortunate trade. events, since that time, may make something farther necessary, and not more necessary for the satisfaction of the colonies than for the dignity and consistency of our own future proceedings. mischievous, in order to preserve trade laws that Then, sir, you keep up revenue laws which are are useless; such is the wisdom of our plan in both its members. They are separately given up as of I have taken a very incorrect measure of the dis- no value, and yet one is always to be defended for position of the house, if this proposal in itself the sake of the other. But I cannot agree with would be received with dislike. I think, sir, we the noble lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence have few American financiers. But our misfortune he seems to have borrowed these ideas, concerning is, we are too acute, we are too exquisite in our the inutility of the trade laws. For without idolizconjectures of the future, for men oppressed with ing them, I am sure they are still, in many ways, such great and present evils. The more moderate of great use to us; and in former times they have among the opposers of parliamentary concession been of the greatest. They do confine, and they freely confess, that they hope no good from taxation, do greatly narrow, the market for the Americans. but they apprehend the colonists have farther views, But my perfect conviction of this does not help me and if this point were conceded, they would instant in the least to discern how the revenue laws form ly attack the trade laws. These gentlemen are any security whatsoever to the commercial regulaconvinced, that this was the intention from the tions; or that these commercial regulations are the beginning, and the quarrel of the Americans with true ground of the quarrel, or that the giving away, taxation was no more than a cloke and a cover to in any one instance of authority, is to lose all that this design. Such has been the language even of may remain unconceded. 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, and the fewest of all, on the trade laws. To judge on new questions; but certainly the least bitter, 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 a gentleman 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 it; and 1 am 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. For instance, when we allege that it is against reason to tax a people under so many restraints to trade as the Americans, the for it. Next, to enable us to judge whether at this noble lordt in the blue riband shall tell you, that moment a dislike to the trade laws be the real the restraints on trade are futile and useless; of no advantage to us, and of no burthen to those on the taxes out of the question by a repeal. See how cause of quarrel, it is absolutely necessary to put whom they are imposed; that the trade to America the Americans act in this position, and then you is not secured by the acts of navigation, but by the will be able to discern correctly what is the true natural and irresistible advantage of a commericial object of the controversy, or whether any contropreference. versy 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 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 na ture of things are brought to prove, and do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an effective on their own acts, but on your conjectures. Surely revenue from the colonies; when these things are pressed, or rather press themselves, so as to drive *Mr. Rire. Lord North. it is preposterous at the very best. It is not justifying your anger by their misconduct, but it is converting your ill-will into their delinquency. But the colonies will go farther.-Alas! ales! When will this speculating against fact and reason instantly communicated to Ireland; and we are end? What will quiet these panic fears, which we equally sure that almost every successive improveentertain of the hostile effect of a conciliatory con-ment in constitutional liberty, as fast as it was duct? Is it true that no case can exist, in which made here, was transmitted thither. The feudal it is proper for the sovereign to accede to the desires of his discontented subjects? Is there any thing 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 that are left by government, the more the subject will be inclin-not churlishly sit down alone to the feast of Magna ed to resist and rebel? All these objections, being in fact no more than suspicions, conjectures, divinations formed in defiance of fact and experience, did not, sir, discourage me from entertaining the idea of a conciliatory concession, founded on the principles I have just stated. 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, gave us at least a house of commons of weight and consequence. But your ancestors did Charta. Ireland was made immediately a partaker. This benefit of English laws and liberties, I confess, was not at first extended to all Ireland. Mark the consequence. English authority, and English liberties had exactly the same boundaries. Your standard eould never be advanced an inch before your privileges. Sir John Davis shews, beyond a doubt, that the refusal of a general communication In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavored of these rights, was the true cause why Ireland to put myself in that frame of mind, which was the was five hundred years in subduing; and after the most natural, and the most reasonable; and which vain projects of a military government, attempted was certainly the most probable means of securing in the reign of queen Elizabeth, it was soon dis me from all error. I set out with a perfect distrust covered, that nothing could make that country of my own abilities; a total renunciation of every English, in civility and allegiance, but your laws speculation of my own, and with a profound reve- and your forms of legislature. It was not English rence for the wisdom of our ancestors, who have arms, but the English constitution, that conquered left us the inheritance of so happy a constitution, Ireland. From that time, Ireland has ever had a and so flourishing an empire, and what is a thousand general parliament as she had before a partial times more valuable, the treasury of the maxims and principles which formed the one, and obtained the other. During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the Austrian 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 shewed that they had not chosen the most perfect standard. But, sir, I am sure that I shall parliament; you changed the people, you altered the religion, but you never touched the form or the vital substance of free government. 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 burthen intolerable to this nation, has rendered her a princi pal 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 arguIreland, before the English conquest, though ment, they make an exception to prove the rule. never governed by a despotic power, had no parlia- None of your own liberties could stand a inoment, ment. How far the English parliament was at that if the casual deviations from them, at such times, tine modelled, according to the present form, is were suffered to be used as proofs of their nallity. disputed among antiquarians. But we have all By the lucrative amount of such casual breaches the reason in the world to be assured that a form in the constitution, judge what the stated and of parliament, such as England then enjoyed, she fixed rule of supply has been in that kingdom. not be misled, when, in a case of constitutiona! 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 Ire land, Wales, Chester, and Durham. Your Irish pensioners would starve, if they had no other fund to live on than taxes granted by Eng. lish authority. Turn your eyes to those popular grants from whence all your great supplies are come, and learn to respect that only source of publie wealth in the British empire. use of it! I admit it fully, and pray add like vise to these precedents, that all the while Wales eyed this kingdom like an incubus; that it was an unprofitable and oppressive burthen; and that an Englishman, travelling in that country, could not go six yards from the high road without being murdered. My next example is Wales. This country was The march of the human mind is slow, sir; it said to be reduced by Henry the third. It was said more truly to be so by Edward the first. But was not until after two hundred years discovered, though then conquered, it was not looked upon ashat, by an eternal law, Providence had decreed vexation to violence and poverty to repine. Your any part of the realm of England. Its old con stitution, whatever that might have been, was ancestors did however at length open their eyes destroyed, and no good one was substituted in its to the ill husbandry of injustice. They found that place. The care of that tract was put into the the tyranny of a free people could, of all tyrannies, hand of lord Marchers-a form of government of the least be endured, and that laws made against a very singular kind; a strange heterogeneous a whole nation were not the most effectual methods monster, something between hostility and govern- for securing its obedience. Accordingly, in the ment; perhaps it has a sort of resemblance, accord-twenty-seventh year of Henry VIII. the course was With a preamble stating the ing to the modes of those times, to that of com- entirely altered. mander in chief at present, to whom all civil entire and perfect rights of the crown of England, power is granted as secondary. The manners of it gave to the Welch all the rights and privileges the Welch nation followed the genius of the go. of English subjects. A political order was estabvernment; the people were ferocious, restive, lished; the military power gave way to the civil; savage, and uncultivated; sometimes composed, the marches were turned into counties. But that never pacified. Wales within itself was in per- a nation should have a right to English liberties, petual disorder; and it kept the frontier of Eng-nd yet no share at all in the fundamental security land in perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the of these liberties, the grant of their own property, state there were none. Wales was only known to England by incursion and invasion. Sir, during that state of things, parliament was not idle. They attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of the Welch by all sorts of rigorous laws. They prohibited by statute the sending all sorts of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation (with something more of doubt on the legality) the sending arms to America. They disarmed. the Welch by statute as you attempted (but still with more question on the legality) to disarm New England by 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 Welch 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. Here we rub our hands-A fine body of precedents for the authority of parliament, and the seemed a thing so incongruous, that eight years Simul alba nautis 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 II. drew the standing army of archers, with which for a time he oppressed England. The people of Chester applied to parliament in a petition, penned as I shall read to you: |