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gous to that which had been framed by Lord Chatham. Each renounced the idea of America being reprefented in the British parliament. Mr. Burke's plan went to repealing only one of the eight acts of parliament proposed by the noble Earl in the other House, but with him it urged the neceffity of repealing all the acts refpecting America which had paffed in the laft feffion of Parliament, the Quebec act excepted; to regulate the Courts of Admiralty; and that the Judges fhould be paid by the affemblies, and hold their pofts during good behaviour. The bafis on which the whole fabric refted, was the mode by which a revenue should be raifed. Mr. Burke propofed, that all grants or aids to Great Britain made by America, fhould be by resolutions. in their general affemblies; the readiness of those affemblies, to grant an equitable supply for the exigencies of the state, he inferred from the free grants which they had at fundry times made of large fubfidies, according to their abilities. All these refolutions were rejected by a great majority.

Mr. Burke appealed to the public, by printing his fpeech; the public read, admired, and forgot it. In short, pofterity alone is qualified to decide upon the merits of a politician who attempts to reafon down the pride of empire, and to perfuade a warlike people to yield, when they imagine themfelves able to dictate. No orator ever fucceeded in a cause wherein it was impoffible for him to engage fome active paffion of the human foul in his intereft.

Whilft the important difpute with America caufed warm debates in both houfes of parliament, and greatly divided the nation, a variety of publications iffued from the prefs, in some of which the conduct of government was defended with great zeal, and in others as warmly attacked, fometimes with argument, fometimes by ridicule, and not unfrequently with abuse. Indeed the liberty of the press pre

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vailed in its full extent. The ministry, instead of punifhing abufive writers, retained in their pay fuch as were very eminent for that qualification, it having been thought more ferviceable to the cause of government to bear down fcurrility by fcurrility, than to profecute delinquents in the courts of law. To reftrain the licentiousness of the prefs ufed to be deemed neceffary by minifters, but now a different kind of conduct is adopted; the abuse of the prefs is winked at, is even countenanced, and an useful purpose is answered to government thereby the natural attachment which mankind feels to order and decorum, cause men of fense and influence to be disgusted at the abuse and illiberality which is poured out, and the forbearance of government is construed into moderation, when perhaps their own emiffaries are the delinquents *.

The most able and refpectable advocate for government, was a writer who had spent a long courfe of years in lite rary pursuits, no lefs laborious to himself than beneficial to mankind, and who was at length, by the well-directed bounty of his Sovereign, rescued from thofe uneasy senfations, which muft prey upon a man of genius, who is compelled to make writing a profeffiont. This gentleman had

* In the early part of the reign of George the Second, the printer of the Craftsman was taken up for publishing two letters, which were written by lord Bolingbroke, in the first of which he passed great encomiums upon Edward the Third, interspersed with some oblique hints, which were conftrued into libels against the governinent: and in the fecond, he drew the character of Richard the Second, in a manner which was fuppofed to convey the fame meaning; but the affair was fuffered to die away. This will, however, ferve to fhew the great increase in the license of the prefs in the courfe of about forty years.

+ Dr. Johnfon feelingly defcribes fuch a fituation, in the admirable preface which he has written to his Dictionary of the English language.

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ever avowed his political fentiments, which led him to be ftrongly attached to the house of Stuart, and to treat with afperity the conduct of the legislature towards that family ; but he had at length, like many others who held the fame principles, transferred his loyalty to the Brunswick line: it was therefore in the integrity of his heart that he undertook a defence of American taxation from the imputation of tyranny. In this piece he defended the doctrine of Colony fubordination upon the principles of the law of nations; maintained that the Colonifts, by their fituation, became poffeffed of fuch advantages as were more than equivalent to their right of voting for representatives in parliament: he ridiculed the diftinction made between internal taxation and commercial regulations, and argued, that as the parliament may enact for America a law of capital punishment, it therefore establish a mode and proportion of taxation.

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This work was published about the time that Mr. Burke delivered his celebrated speech in the House of Commons. It is to the honour of human nature to have it remarked, that these two contemporaries, diftinguished in the highest degree for the universality of their knowledge and learning, as well as for the elevation of their genius, who, notwithftanding they were ftrenuous fupporters, from principle, of very oppofite political fentiments, at the very time when these points were warmly difcuffed, and the zeal of the difputants frequently drew forth invective and fierce recrimination, yet lived in habits of ftrict friendship, and knew how to enjoy "the feaft of reafon and the flow of foul" amidst the tempeft of civil contentions. A glorious triumph. over those weakneffes which the human mind is too much fufceptible of, even when under the government of a found understanding!

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Neither fhould the hiftorian who records the tranfactions of these times, omit to take notice of the difinterested conduct of a young nobleman in this unhappy difpute. In all questions concerning the government of America which came before the House of Lords during this feffion of parliament, the Earl of Effingham ftrenuously opposed the measures adopted by the majority. Although the fortune which he inherited was not ample, yet his descent was as illuftrious as any peer of Great Britain: one of the elder branches of his family commanded the English fleet that was opposed to the Spanish Armada in 1588, from which period a martial spirit prevailed in most of the defcendants from this noble blood of the Howards. Like his father and grandfather he was bred to arms, and in his early manhood discovered a strong attachment to his profeffion. An earneft defire to become a practical foldier led him, when the war between Ruffia and the Porte broke out, to serve as a volunteer in the army of the former power. The reeftablishment of peace reftored his lordship to his country, when he gave a public testimony of his political principles, by figning the protest which was entered on the journals of the House of Lords, on paffing the act for regulating the government of Maffachufet's Bay*. The twenty-fecond regiment of foot, in which he held a captain's commiffion, being at length ordered to America, he conceived his profeffion of a foldier no longer compatible with his duty as a citizen, he therefore wrote a letter of refignation to the fecretary at war. "It is, faid he, when addreffing his peers, no fmall facrifice which a man makes who gives up his profeffion, but it is a much greater, when a predilection ftrengthened by habit, has given him fo ftrong an attachment to his profeffion as I fèel; I have, however, this confolation, that by making the facrifice, I at leaft give to my

* See page 149.

country

country an unequivocal proof of the fincerity of my principles." The cities of London and Dublin voted their thanks to his lordship for this noble conduct.

The bufinefs of finance clofed the feffion. The amount of the fupplies for the year 1775 was 4:307,45CL. and a million of three per cent. annuities was paid off at 88 per cent†. 1,250,000. exchequer bills were discharged, and new ones to an equal amount iffued. The land-tax was continued at three fhillings in the pound, and the total of ways and means, exclufive of exchequer bills, but including the million of the national debt difcharged, was 5,309,246£‡•

Speech in the Houfe of Lords, May 18, 1775.

The Earl of Stair ftates, that the new debts contracted in the years 1774 & 1775, which were not funded, exceeded the debts discharged, by 274,870l. See his Obfervations on the State of the Nation.

The expence of 18,000 feamen, building and repairing

fhips and ordinary of navy

Ordinaries and extraordinaries of ordnance

Army, amounting to 17,547 landmen and 4,383 invalids
Miscellaneous fervices

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Further deficiency in the gold coin, extras of mint and fur

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The balance arifing from the finking fund to the 5th of

January, 1775, was

The quarter ending 5th of April

The growing produce was appropriated to the amount of
Proft on a lottery

IT,239 884,447

1,904,313

150,000

The fale of the ceded islands at length yielded
French prize money 17,000l. and American revenue 15,000l.
The furplus of ways and means was calculated at

50,000

32,000

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122,793

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