former. Then, making a fatal admission of the trifling nature of the object which had produced so much ill blood between the colonies and the mother country, he confessed that his idea never had been to draw any considerable revenue from America; that his wish was, that the colonists should contribute in a very low proportion to the expenses of Great Britain. He was very well aware that American taxation could never produce a beneficial revenue, and that many taxes could not be laid or collected in the colonies. The stamp-act, however, seemed to be judiciously chosen as a fiscal experiment, as it interested every man who had any dealing or property to defend or recover, in the collection of the tax and the execution of the statute; but this experiment had failed in consequence of the obstinacy of the Americans, in transacting all business without using the stamps prescribed by law. The act enabling the East India Company to send tea to America on their own account, and with the draw-back of the whole duty in England, was a relief instead of an oppression; but this measure had been defeated by contraband traders, who had too successfully misrepresented it as an invasion of colonial rights. Having thus detailed the difficulties with which ministers had heen called to struggle in legislating for so perverse a generation as the Americans had proved themselves to be, his lordship then proceeded to open his plan, the outline of which has been given above; and, in descanting on the ample powers with which he proposed to invest the commissioners, and foreseeing that the Americans might refuse to treat with these agents of the Sovereign without a previous acknowledgement of their indepen Then what did he admit? What did he say of the stamp-act? What about the tea? What did he then proceed to? dence, he humbled himself so far as to say, that he would not insist on their renouncing their independence till the treaty should receive its final ratification from the King and parliament of Great Britain; and then, in a manner confessing that, instead of a sovereign assembly the parliament was reduced to the condition of a supplicant to the mutinous colonies, he proposed that the commissioners should be instructed to negotiate with them for some reasonable and moderate contribution towards the common defence of the empire when re-united; but, to take away all pretence for not terminating this unhappy difference, the contribution was not to be insisted on as a sine qua non of the treaty; but that if the Americans should refuse so reasonable and equitable a proposition, they were not to look for support from that part of the empire to whose expense they had refused to contribute. Weakly attempting to obviate the imputation that these pacific measures were the fruit of fear, occasioned by the recent successes of the insurgents, he called the House to witness that he had declared for conciliation at the beginning of the session, when he thought that the victories of General Howe had been more decisive, and when he knew nothing of the misfortunes of Burgoyne. He acknowledged that the events of the war had turned out very differently from his expectation, but maintained that for the disappointment of the hopes of the public no blame was imputable to himself; that he had promised that a great army should be sent out, and a great army, an army of upwards of 60,000 men, had been sent out; that he had promised that a great fleet should be employed, and a great fleet had been employed; How far did he humble himself? What did he in a manner confess? What did he propose? What did he weakly attempt? What did he acknowledge? What maintain? Why? that he had engaged that this army and this fleet should be provided with every kind of supply, and that they had been supplied most amply and liberally, and might be so for years to come; and that if the House was deceived, they had deceived themselves. The prime minister, having thus by implication attributed the failure of his plans to the commanders of the British forces employed to conduct the war, concluded his speech by a boastful assertion, that the strength of the nation was still entire; that its resources were ample, and that it was able, if it were necessary, to carry on the war much longer. The disavowal on the part of Lord North of any intention to raise a revenue in America, seems to have given no little umbrage to the country gentlemen, whose organ, Mr. Baldwin, exclaimed, that he had been deceived by the minister; that three years ago he had asked him whether a revenue was meant by the measures which he then proposed to enforce; that he was answered it was, and that upon that ground alone he had hitherto voted with the ministry. The regular opposition were, upon the whole, more moderate than the landed aristocracy. Mr. Fox approved of Lord North's propositions, which, he reminded him, were in substance the same as those which were in vain brought forward by Mr. Burke about three years before. He did not, however, restrain himself from making some severe animadversions on the policy of the Premier, all whose arguments, he asserted, might be collected into one point, his excuses all reduced to one apology-his total ignorance. 'He hoped,' exclaimed the indignant orator, 'he hoped, To whom did the Prime Minister attribute the failure? How was this speech received? What did Mr. Baldwin say? What did Mr. Fox say of the Premier's policy? and was disappointed; he [expected a great deal, and found little to answer his expectations. He thought the Americans would have submitted to his laws, and they resisted them. He thought they would have submitted to his armies, and they were beaten by inferior numbers. He made conciliatory propositions, and he thought they would succeed, but they were rejected. He appointed commissioners to make peace, and he thought they had powers; but he found they could not make peace, and nobody believed they had any powers. He had said many such things as he had thought fit in his conciliatory propositions; he thought it a proper method of quieting the Americans upon the affair of taxation. If any person should give himself the trouble of reading that proposition, he would find not one word of it correspondent to the representation made of it by its framer. The short account of it was, that the noble lord in the proposition assured the colonies, that when Parliament had taxed them as much as they thought proper, they would tax them no more.' In conclusion, however, Mr. Fox said 'that he would vote for the present proposition, because it was much more clear and satisfactory, for necessity had caused him to speak plain.' The conciliatory bills, in their passage through the two Houses, excited many animated debates, in the course of which Lord North was exposed to much animadversion, which he seems to have borne with great equanimity. At length, all points relative to them being settled by Parliament, they were sanctioned by the royal assent. But the urgency of danger would not allow ministers to wait till they were passed into a law; and the same statesmen who had a little time before treated the petitions of the colonies with scorn and contempt, hastened to commu How close? At length what was done? What did ministers hasten to do? nicate their propositions whilst yet in the shape of bills, to the Congress, in hopes that the adoption on their part of a milder policy might be met with a similar spirit of conciliation on the other side of the Atlantic. These documents were dispatched in such haste, that they arrived at New York in time to be presented by Sir William Howe to the Congress, before that assembly had received intelligence of the signature of their treaty of alliance with France. The American legislators did not, however, hesitate as to the line of conduct which in these circumstances it became them to pursue. They peremptorily rejected the proposals of Lord North as insidious and unsatisfactory. During the progress of the conciliatory bills, and after their passing, frequent and animated debates took place in both Houses of Parliament, relative to the foreign and domestic policy of the country. In the House of Lords, the Duke of Richmond took the lead in discussing these subjects, and on the 7th of April, he made an impressive speech on the state of the nation, in which he maintained, that the salvation of the country required the withdrawing of the British troops from North America, and even not obscurely hinted that, for the acquisition of peace, it would be politic to agree to the independence of the colonies. As his grace's sentiments on the latter point were no secret, and as it was to be expected that he would propound them on this occasion, Lord Chatham, now laboring under the weight of seventy years, rendered more heavy by acute bodily suffering, regardless of his infirmities, attended in his place for the purpose of raising his voice against the duke's proposition. My Lords,' exclaimed the venera How did congress receive the proposals of Lord North? Who took the lead in the House of Lords? What did he maintain in his speech on the 7th of April? Who was Lord Chatham and what did he say? |