CHAP. which they presume to attempt, but cannot hope to effectuate. XVIII. 1775. Jan. 20. "It is not repealing a piece of parchment, that can restore America to our bosom: you must repeal her fears and her resentments; and you may then hope for her love and gratitude. Insulted with an armed force posted at Boston, irritated with a hostile array before her eyes, her concessions, if you could force them, would be insecure. But it is more than evident, that united as they are, you cannot force them to your unworthy terms of submission. "When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must avow, that in all my reading,-and I have read Thucydides and have studied and admired the master-states of the world, for solidity of reason, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion under a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia. The histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing equal to it, and all attempts to impose servitude upon such a mighty continental nation, must be vain. We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract while we can, not when we must. These violent acts must be repealed; you will repeal them; I pledge myself for it, I stake my reputation on it, that you will in the end repeal them. Avoid, then, this humiliating necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, make the first advances to concord, peace, and happiness, for that is your true dignity. Con XVIII. cession comes with better grace from superior power; CHAP and establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude. Be the first to spare; throw down the weapons in your hand. "Every motive of justice and policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America by a removal of your troops from Boston, by a repeal of your acts of parliament, and by demonstrating amicable dispositions towards your colonies. On the other hand, to deter you from perseverance in your present ruinous measures, every danger and every hazard impend; foreign war hanging over you by a thread; France and Spain watching your conduct, and waiting for the maturity of your errors. "If the ministers persevere in thus misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that the king is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone; I will not say, that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown, but I will affirm, that, the American jewel out of it, they will make the crown not worth his wearing." The words of Chatham, when reported to the king, recalled his last interview with George Grenville, and stung him to the heart. He raved at the wise counsels of the greatest statesman of his dominions, as the words of an abandoned politician; classed him with Temple and Grenville as "void of gratitude;" and months afterwards was still looking for the time, "when decrepitude or age should put an end to him as the trumpet of sedition." With a whining delivery, of which the bad effect was heightened by its vehemence, Suffolk assured 1775. Jan. 20. XVIII. Jan. CHAP. the house, that in spite of Lord Chatham's prophecy, the government was resolved to repeal not one of 1775. the acts, but to use all possible means to bring the Americans to obedience. After declaiming against their conduct with a violence that was almost madness, he boasted of "having been one of the first to advise coercive measures." 20. Shelburne gave his adhesion to the sentiments of Chatham, not from personal engagements, but solely on account of his conviction of their wisdom, justice, and propriety. Camden, who in the discussion surpassed every one but Chatham, returned to his old ground. "This," he declared, "I will say, not only as a statesman, politician, and philosopher, but as a common lawyer; my lords, you have no right to tax America; the natural rights of man, and the immutable laws of nature, are all with that people. King, lords, and commons, are fine sounding names; but king, lords, and commons may become tyrants as well as others; it is as lawful to resist the tyranny of many as of one. Somebody once asked the great Selden in what book you might find the law for resisting tyranny. 'It has always been the custom of England,' answered Selden, and the custom of England is the law of the land.'" "My lords," said Lord Gower with contemptuous sneers, "let the Americans talk about their natural and divine rights! their rights as men and citizens their rights from God and nature! I am for enforcing these measures." Rochford held Lord Chatham, jointly with the Americans, responsible in his own person for disagreeable consequences. Lyttelton reproached Chatham with spreading the fire XVIII. of sedition, and the Americans with designing to CHAP. emancipate themselves from the act of navigation. 1775. Jan. Chatham closed the debate as he had opened it, by insisting on the right of Great Britain to regulate 20. the commerce of the whole empire; but as to the right of the Americans to exemption from taxation, except by their implied or express assent, they derived it from God, nature, and the British constitution. Franklin with rapt admiration listened to the man, who on that day had united the highest wisdom and eloquence. "His speech," said the young William Pitt, "was the most forcible that can be imagined; in matter and manner far beyond what I can express; it must have an infinite effect without doors, the bar being crowded with Americans." The statesmanship of Chatham and the close reasoning of Camden, "availed no more than the whistling of the winds; " the motion was rejected by a vote of sixty-eight against eighteen; but the duke of Cumberland, one of the king's own brothers, was found in the minority. The king, triumphing in "the very handsome majority," was sure "nothing could be more calculated to bring the Americans to submission;" but the debate of that day, notwithstanding that Rockingham had expressed his adherence to his old opinion of the propriety of the declaratory act, went forth to the colonies as an assurance that the inevitable war would be a war with a ministry, not with the British people. It took from the contest the character of internecine hatred, to be transmitted from generation to generation, and showed that the true spirit of England, which had grown great by freedom, was on the side of America. Its |