America had made in population, and in the commerce carried on with Great Britain. He afferted, that the Colonies in general owed little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they were not squeezed into their happy form, by the constraints of watchful and fufpicious government, but that through a wife and falutary neglect, a generous nature had been fuffered to take her own way to perfection. He affigned, as the caufes from whence a fierce fpirit of liberty had grown up in the Colonies, their origin-their form of government-the force of religious principles in the northern Colonies-of manners in the fouthern-of educationand of the remoteness of fituation from the first mover of government. Under the head of education he obferved, that perhaps in no country in the world, the law is made fo general a study as in North America; infomuch as that it was faid, nearly as many copies of Blackftone's Commentaries had been printed and fold in America as in England. This knowledge of law, fome might fay, ought to teach them more clearly the rights of legiflature, their obligations to obedience, and the penalties of rebellion; but when great honours and great emoluments do not win over this knowledge to the fervice of the ftate, it is a formidable adverfary to government. His reafoning, folid and irrefragable in itself, received all the embellishment which a fine imagination could beftow. In large bodies, faid he, the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities. Nature has faid it. The Turk cannot govern Egypt and Arabia and Curdistan, as he governs Thrace. Perhaps ideas of liberty might be defired more reconcileable with an arbitary and boundless authority. Perhaps we might with the Colonies to be perfuaded, that their liberty is more fecure when held in truft for them by us (as their guardians during a perpetual minority) than with any part of it in their their own hands; but the queftion is not whether their fpirit deferves praife or blame. This able legiflator then proceeded to deliver it as his opinion, that there were but three ways of proceeding relative to this ftubborn fpirit which prevailed in the Colonies; namely, to change that fpirit as inconvenient, by removing the causes; to profecute it as criminal; or to comply with it as neceffary. One means of changing the spirit was, by taking measures to ftop that fpreading population which was fo alarming to this country, by the crown making no further grants of land. But this, he faid, would by no means answer the purpose, there being already fo much unfettled land in private hands, as would afford fcope for an immense future population, and the numerous bodies which could obtain no fettled habitation, would become hordes of Englifh Tartars, which would be in time formidable to the fixed refidents. He called this project " hedging in population," and pronounced it to be neither prudent nor practicable. A more direct way of breaking their spirit would be to impoverish them, by arresting the noble courfe of their marine enterprizes. This, he faid, was no more than the old, and, as he thought, the exploded problem of tyranny, which proposes to beggar its fubjects into fubmiffion. But nature ftill proceeds in her ordinary courfe, and discontent will increase with mifery; and there are critical moments in the fortune of all ftates, when they who are too weak to contribute to our profperity, may be strong enough to complete our ruin. The temper and character which prevailed in the Colonies, he thought unalterable by any human art, neither the natural nor moral caufes could be changed. As As to the fecond mode of proceeding, to profecute this fpirit in its overt acts as criminal; he knew, he faid, of no method of drawing up an indictment againft a whole people; and in a quarrel among the component parts of a great political union of communities, nothing could be more completely imprudent, than for the head of the empire to infift, that if any privilege is pleaded against his will or his acts, that his whole authority is denied, inftantly to proclaim rebellion, to beat to arms, and to put the offending provinces under the ban. Such conduct may teach the provinces, that the government against which a claim of liberty is tantamount to high-treafon, is a government in which fubmiffion is equivalent to flavery. If then the removal of the causes of this fpirit of American liberty, be for the greater part, or rather entirely, impracticable; if the ideas of criminal procefs be inapplicable, or if applicable, are in the highest degree inexpedient, what way yet remains? No way is open but the third and laft, to comply with the American fpirit as neceffary, or, if you please, to fubmit to it as a neceffary evil. It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tells me I ought to do. Of what avail are titles and arms, when the reafon of the thing tells me, that the affertion of my title is the lofs of my fuit; and that I could do nothing but wound myself with the ufe of my own weapons? The general character and fituation of a people muft determine what fort of government is fitted for them, He urged, with great force of reafoning, the conduct of the legislature in early times towards the kingdom of Ire land, the principality of Wales, and the county Palatine of Chefter; and contended, that the fame principles which actuated our ancestors in their conduct towards thofe countries fhould govern us in our treatment of America, “ It was was not," said he, "English arms, but the English conftitution that conquered Ireland; it was the vital fubftance of free government in that kingdom." Wales, before it partook of those common rights, rode this kingdom like an incubus. That principality was an unprofitable and oppreffive burden. Our ancestors at length found, that laws made against a whole nation, were not the most effectual methods for fecuring its obedience; Wales, therefore, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, became poffeffed of all the rights and privileges of English subjects. About the same time the county Palatine of Chefter obtained the fame relief, in confequence of a petition prefented to the King, which fet forth, "that for want of being represented in parliament, the inhabitants of that country had been oftentimes touched and grieved with acts and ftatutes made within the court of parliament, as well derogatory unto the most ancient jurisdictions, liberties and privileges of their county Palatine, as prejudicial to the common-wealth, quietness, reft, and peace of your Grace's moft bounden fubjects inhabiting within the fame." Parliament, he obferved, fo far from being offended at the free ftyle of this petition, made the expreffions used therein, the very preamble to their act of redrefs, and confecrated its principle to all ages in the fanctuary of legiflation. Thus was Chester, which had been little lefs diftempered than Wales, cured by the fame remedy, which demonftrates that freedom, and not fervitude, is the cure of anarchy, as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superftition. The * In the beginning of the next feffion Mr. Burke offered to the confideration of parliament another bill, which aimed at compofing the troubles and quieting the minds of his Majesty's subjects in America, This plan of conciliation was founded on that important law paffed in the The grand ftimulus for coercive meafures with America was, the full affurance which was entertained by many, that the Colonies would go farther. That with their increafing ftrength they would increase their discontents, until they difclaimed all fubordination. Now although the idea of a perpetual minority might have been treated as a chimera, engendered by pride upon selfishness, yet our orator knew too well the difpofition of his audience to combat that fentiment, he therefore paffed over fuperficially a point, which it was dangerous to difcufs fully. The fyftem of Colony government, which this able ftatefman had formed, was in every effential point anala the reign of Edward the First, known by the name of Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo. He fhewed the fimilarity of the ancient difputes that arose between the kings and the people of England on the fubject of taxation, to those now fubfifting between the parliament and the natives of America; that the claim of sovereignty was the same in both inftances, and the evils which were effectually removed by the ftatute de tallagio, correfponded exactly with thofe which his propofed bill was intended to remedy. That parliament had happily a precedent of the first authority to serve as a guide to their conduct. The kings of England formerly contended, that the crown, being charged with the public defence, must be furnithed alfo with the means of providing for it. That it would be abfurd to commit a truft into the hands of one perfon, and to leave the power of executing it to depend upon the will of another. But notwithstanding the force of this argument, and the allurements of the claim, one of the greatest and wifeft of our monarchs, by an exprefs and pofitive act, cut off from the fovereign power the right of taxing. To this conceffion, he said, in all human proba bility, the prefervation of the other branches of the prerogative was owing. The law was abfolutely filent about the right, and confined itfelf to give fatisfaction in future, and has ever fince been the foundation of the unity and happiness of England. This bill, tho' rejected, was fupported by a larger number than any other propofal made by the minority respecting America, the number being 210 to 105. gous |