comes, therefore, to the conclusion that it must be propitiated; or, in other words, that England must concede. He now considers, 2dly. "What should the concession be?" He remarks that it must obviously relate to taxation, since this was the origin of the contest; and then appeals to the case of Ireland, which was early allowed a Parliament of its own, and of Wales, Chester, and Durham, which were admitted to a representation in the Parliament of England. After obviating objections, and exposing the evils of Lord North's scheme, he comes to the conclusion that the Americans ought (as in the cases adduced) to be admitted to the peculiar privilege of Englishmen, that of "giving and granting," through their own Legislatures, whatever they contributed in aid of the Crown; and not be subjected to the imposition of taxes by a Parliament in which they were not represented. He therefore offers six main resolutions asserting these principles, and three subordinate ones for rescinding the penal statutes against America, thus carrying the plan of conciliation into full effect. After the sketch here given, it is hardly necessary to say that this speech is distinguished for the felicitous selection of its topics; the lucid order in which they are arranged; their close connection; the ease with which one thought grows out of another in a regular and progressive series; and the tendency of the whole to a single point, with all the force and completeness of a moral demonstration. The argument throughout is founded on facts; and yet never was there a speech which had less the character of a mere "matter of fact" production than the one before us. The outline just given is filled up with thoughts fresh from a mind teeming with original and profound reflections on the science of government and the nature of man. There are more passages in this than in any other of Mr. Burke's speeches, which have been admired and quoted for the richness of their imagery, or the force and beauty of their descriptions. The language was evidently elaborated with great care; and Sir James Mackintosh has pronounced it "the most faultless of Mr. Burke's productions." SPEECH, &c. If, ever, we are, at this very instant, nearly as free I HOPE, sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity | bill, which seemed to have taken its flight forof the chair, your good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence toward human frailty. You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my infinite surprise, that the grand penal bill, by which we had passed sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is to be returned to us from the other House. I do confess, I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. I look upon it as a sort of providential favor, by which we are put once more in possession of our deliberative capacity, upon a business so very questionable in its nature, so very uncertain in its issue. By the return of this There is too much that is fanciful in some parts of this exordium. A man who was wholly absorbed in his subject would not talk thus about himself, or about "the austerity of the chair," "indulgence toward human frailty," being "inclined to superstition," "a fortunate omen," "a superior warning voice," &c. It was this that made Mr. Hazlitt say, "Most of his speeches have a sort of parliamentary preamble to them: there is an air of affected mod esty, and ostentatious trifling in them: he seems fond of coqueting with the House of Commons, and is perpetually calling the speaker out to dance a minuet with him before he begins." This is strongly stated, but it shows a fault in Mr. Burke, which was often spoken of by his contemporaries. Hazlitt at tributes it to his having been "raised into public life he was prouder of his new dignity than became so great a man." Perhaps a truer solution is, that Mr. Burke's fancy too often outran his judgment, which was certainly the occasion of most of his er rors in composition. 2 An act interdicting the trade and fisheries of all the New England colonies. me. that requires sys Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none so on this side of the grave. When The subject one I first had the honor of a seat in this tematic views. House, the affairs of that continent pressed themselves upon us as the most important and most delicate object of parliamentary attention. My little share in this great deliberation oppressed I found myself a partaker in a very high trust; and having no sort of reason to rely on the strength of my natural abilities for the proper execution of that trust, I was obliged to take more than common pains to instruct myself in every thing which relates to our colonies. I was not less under the necessity of forming some fixed ideas concerning the general policy of the British empire. Something of this sort seemed to be indispensable, in order, amid so vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to concenter my thoughts; to ballast my conduct; to preserve me from being blown about by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did not think it safe, or manly, to have fresh principles to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive from America. At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect concurrence with a large majority in this House.3 Bowing under that high author3 This was in 1766, when the Stamp Act was repealed by the Rockingham administration. ity, and penetrated with the sharpness and strength of that early impression, I have continued ever since in my original sentiments without the least deviation. Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge. Sir, Parliament having an enlarged view of objects, made, during, this interval, more frequent changes in their sentiment and their conduct than could be justified in a particular person upon the contracted scale of private information. But though I do not hazard any thing approaching to a censure on the motives of former Parliaments to all those alterations, one fact is undoubted that under them the state of America has been kept in continual agitation. Every thing administered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did not produce, was at least followed by, a heightening of the distemper; until, by a variety of experiments, that important country has been brought into her present situation-a situation which I will not miscall, which I dare not name, which I scarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any description. Mr. Burke invi ward. mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, to hazard plans of government, except from a seat of authority. Propositions are made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably, when the minds of men are not properly disposed for their reception; and, for my part, I am not ambitious of ridicule-not absolutely a candidate for disgrace. Besides, sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government, nor of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly separated from the execution. But when I saw that anger and violence prevailed every day more and more, and that things were hastening toward an incurable alienation of our colonies, I confess my caution gave way. I felt this, as one of those few moments in which decorum yields to a higher duty. Public calamity is a mighty leveler, and there are occasions when any, even the slightest, chance of doing good, must be laid hold on, even by the most inconsiderable person. cumstances usually produces timidity. I grew less anxious, even from the idea of my own insignificance. For, judging of what you are by what you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would not reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing but its reason to recommend it. On the other hand, being totally destitute of all shadow of influence, natural or adventitious, I was very sure that if my proposition were futile or dangerous-if it were weakly conceived or improperly timed, there was nothing exterior to it of power to awe, dazzle, or delude you. You will see it just as it is, and you will treat it just as it deserves. To restore order and repose to an empire so great and so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the In this posture, sir, things stood at the begin- flights of the highest genius, and obtain pardon ning of the session. About that time, for the efforts of the meanest understanding. ted to come for a worthy member [Mr. Rose Fuller] Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by of great parliamentary experience, degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived, at who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of the Amer-length, some confidence from what in other cirican committee with much ability, took me aside, and, lamenting the present aspect of our politics, told me, things were come to such a pass, that our former methods of proceeding in the House would be no longer tolerated. That the public tribunal (never too indulgent to a long and unsuccessful Opposition) would now scrutinize our conduct with unusual severity. That the very vicissitudes and shiftings of ministerial measures, instead of convicting their authors of inconstancy and want of system, would be taken as an occasion of charging us with a predetermined discontent, which nothing could satisfy; while we accused every measure of vigor as cruel, and every proposal of lenity as weak and irresolute. The public, he said, would not have patience to see us play the game out with our adversaries: we must produce our hand. It would be expected, that those who for many years had been active in such affairs, should show that they had formed some clear and decided idea of the principles of colony government, and were capable of drawing out something like a platform of the ground which might be laid for future and permanent tranquillity. The PROPOSITION is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunt- The thing ed through the labyrinth of intricate and proposed. endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, sought in its natural course and its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people; and, far from a scheme of ruling by discord, to reconcile them to each other in the same act, and by the bond of the very same interest, which reconciles them to British government. My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is (let me say) of no mean force in the government of mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle My plan, therefore, being formed upon the most simple grounds imaginable, may disappoint some people when they hear it. It has nothing to recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. There is nothing at all new and captivating in it. It has nothing of the splendor of the project which has been lately laid upon your table by the noble Lord in the blue ribbon' [Lord North]. It does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling colony agents, who will require the interposition of your mace at every instant to keep the peace among them. It does not institute a magnificent auction of finance, where captivated provinces come to general ransom by bidding against each other, until you knock down the hammer, and determine a proportion of payments beyond all the powers of algebra to equalize and settle. ect. The plan which I shall presume to suggest The plan jus derives, however, one great advantage unied by Lord from the proposition and registry of North's proj. that noble Lord's project. The idea of conciliation is admissible. First, the House, in accepting the resolution moved by the noble Lord, has admitted, notwithstanding the menacing front of our address," notwithstanding our heavy bill of pains and penalties, that we do not think ourselves precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty. The House has gone farther; it has declared conciliation admissible, previous to any submission on the part of America. It has even shot a That when the governor, council, or Assembly, or General Court of any of his Majesty's provinces or colonies in America, shall propose to make provision, according to the condition, circumstances, and situation of such province or colony, for contributing their proportion to the common defense (such proportion to be raised under the authority of the General Court or General Assembly of such province or colony, and disposable by Parliament), and shall engage to make provision also for the support of the civil government and the administration of justice in such province or colony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be арproved by his Majesty and the two houses of Parlia ment, and for so long as such provision shall be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province or colony, to levy any duty, tax, or assessment, or to impose any farther duty, tax, or assessment, except such duties as it may be expedient to continue to levy or impose for the regulation of commerce: the net produce of the duties last mentioned to be carried to the account of such province or colony respectively.-Resolution moved by Lord North in the committee, and agreed to by the House, 27th February, 1775. 5 The ministry had previously procured the passing of an address to the King, declaring that a rebellion existed in Massachusetts; requesting his Majesty to take effectual means for its suppression; and pledging the zealous co-operation of Parliament in whatever measures he might adopt for that purpose. good deal beyond that mark, and has admitted that the complaints of our former mode of exerting the right of taxation were not wholly unfounded. That right, thus exerted, is allowed to have had something reprehensible in it, something unwise, or something grievous; since, in the midst of our heat and resentment, we, of ourselves, have proposed a capital alteration, and, in order to get rid of what seemed so very exceptionable, have instituted a mode that is altogether new; one that is, indeed, wholly alien from all the ancient methods and forms of Parliament. The principle of this proceeding is large enough for my purpose. The means proposed by the noble Lord for carrying his ideas into execution, I think, indeed, are very indifferently suited to the end; and this I shall endeavor to show you before I sit down. But, for the present, I take my ground on the admitted principle. I mean to give peace. Peace implies reconciliation; and, where there has been a material dispute, reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession on the one part or on the other. In this state of things I make no difficulty in affirming that the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer peace with honor and with safety. Such an offer from such a power will be attributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear. When such a one is disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his superior, and he loses forever that time and those chances which, as they happen to all men, are the strength and resources of all inferior power. The capital leading questions on which you must this day decide, are these two: First, whether you ought to concede; and, secondly, what your concession ought to be. I. On the first of these questions we have gained, as I have just taken the liberty of observing to you, some ground. But I am sensible that a good deal more is still to be done. Indeed, sir, to enable us to determine both on the one and the other of these great questions with a firm and precise judgment, I think it may be necessary to consider distinctly, First general State and cir America The true nature and the peculiar circumstances of the object which we have before us; because, after all our strug- consideration: gle, whether we will or not, we must cumstances of govern America according to that nature and to those circumstances, and not according to our imaginations; not according to abstract ideas of right; by no means according to mere general theories of government, the resort to which appears to me, in our present situation, no better than arrant trifling. I shall therefore endeavor, with your leave, to lay before you some of the most material of these circumstances in as full and as clear a manner as I am able to state them. (1.) The first thing that we have to consider with regard to the nature of the object, is the Population. number of people in the colonies. I have taken for some years a good deal of pains on that point. I can by no calculation justify myself in placing the number below two millions of inhabitants of our own European blood and color, besides at least five hundred thousand others, who form no inconsiderable part of the strength and opulence of the whole. This, sir, is, I believe, about the true number. with great ability, by a distinguished person [Mr. Gower] at your bar. This gentleman, after thirty-five years-it is so long since he appeared at the same place to plead for the commerce of Great Britain-has come again before you to plead the same cause, without any other effect of time, than that, to the fire of imagination and extent of erudition which even then marked him as one of the first literary characters of his age, he has added a consummate knowledge in the commercial interest of his country, formed by a long course of enlightened and discriminating experience. There is no occasion to exaggerate, where plain truth is of so much weight and importance. But whether I put the present numbers too high or too low, is a matter of little moment. Such is the strength with which population shoots in Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after that part of the world, that, state the numbers such a person with any detail, if a great part of as high as we will, while the dispute continues, the members who now fill the House had not the exaggeration ends. While we are discuss- the misfortune to be absent when he appeared ing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. at your bar. Besides, sir, I propose to take the While we spend our time in deliberating on the matter at periods of time somewhat different mode of governing two millions, we shall find from his. There is, if I mistake not, a point of we have two millions more to manage. Your view, from whence, if you will look at this subchildren do not grow faster from infancy to man-ject, it is impossible that it should not make an hood, than they spread from families to commu- impression upon you. nities, and from villages to nations.6 I put this consideration of the present and the growing numbers in the front of our deliberation; because, sir, this consideration will make it evident to a blunter discernment than yours, that no partial, narrow, contracted, pinched, occasional system will be at all suitable to such an object. It will show you that it is not to be considered as one of those minima which are out of the eye and consideration of the law; not a paltry excrescence of the state; not a mean dependent, who may be neglected with little damage, and provoked with little danger. It will prove that some degree of care and caution is required in the handling such an object; it will show that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with so large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human race. You could at no time do so without guilt; and, be assured, you will not be able to do it long with impunity. (2.) But the population of this country, the great and growing population, though Commerce. a very important consideration, will lose much of its weight, if not combined with other circumstances. The commerce of your colonies is out of all proportion beyond the numbers of the people. This ground of their commerce, indeed, has been trod some days ago, and This is in Mr. Burke's best style. The comparison beautifully illustrates the idea, and justifies his assertion, that while "the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends." It is curious to observe, as one of the artifices of language, how Johnson treats the same idea in his Taxation no Tyranny, where he contrives to cover it with contempt in the minds of the Tories, for whom he wrote, by a dexterous use of sneers and appropriate imagery. "We are told that the continent of North America contains three millions, not merely of men, but of Whigs-of Whigs fierce for liberty and disdainful of dominion; that they multiply with the fecundity of their rattlesnakes, so that every quarter of a century they double their numbers!" His conclusion is, that they must be crushed in the egg. I have in my hand two accounts: one a comparative state of the export trade of England to its colonies as it stood in the year 1704, and as it stood in the year 1772; the other a state of the export trade of this country to its colonies alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade of England to all parts of the world, the colonies included, in the year 1704. They are from good vouchers; the latter period from the accounts on your table, the earlier from an original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the inspector general's office, which has been ever since his time so abundant a source of parliamentary information. The export trade to the colonies consists of three great branches: the African, which, terminating almost wholly in the colonies, must be put to the account of their commerce; the West Indian, and the North American. All these are so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole, and, if not entirely destroy, would very much depreciate the value of all the parts. I therefore consider these three denominations to be, what in effect they are, one trade. The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood thus: Exports to North America and the To Africa..... £483,265 86,665 £569,930 The whole export trade of En gland, including that to the colonies, in 1704..... ... £6,509,000 Exported to the colonies alone, in 1772... Difference.. 6,024,000 From five hundred and odd thousand, it has | auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues, grown to six millions. It has increased no less which made him one of the most amiable, as he than twelve-fold. This is the state of the colony is one of the most fortunate men of his age, had trade, as compared with itself at these two pe- opened to him in vision, that when, in the fourth riods, within this century; and this is matter for generation, the third prince of the house of Brunsmeditation. But this is not all. Examine my wick had sat twelve years on the throne of that second account. See how the export trade to nation, which, by the happy issue of moderate and the colonies alone in 1772 stood in the other healing councils, was to be made Great Britain, point of view, that is, as compared to the whole he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England, trade of England in 1704. turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to a higher rank of peerage, while he enriched the family with a new one. If, amid these bright and happy scenes of domestic honor and prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his country, and while he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a little speck, scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, a small seminal principle rather than a formed body, and should tell him, "Young man, there is America-which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as much added to her by America in the course of a single life!" If this state of his country had been foretold to him, would it not require all the sanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it! Fortunate indeed, if he live to see The trade with America alone is now within less than £500,000 of being equal to what this great commercial nation, England, carried on at the beginning of this century with the whole world! If I had taken the largest year of those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But, it will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural protuberance, that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body? The reverse. It is the very food that has nourished every other part into its present magnitude. Our general trade has been greatly augmented, and augmented more or less in almost every part to which it ever extended, but with this material difference, that of the six millions which in the beginning of the century constituted the whole mass of our export commerce, the colony trade was but one twelfth part; it is now (as a part of sixteen millions) considerably more than a third of the whole. This is the relative proportion of the importance of the colonies at these two periods; and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating them must have this proportion as its basis, or it is a reasoning weak, rotten, and sophistical: Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to hurry over this great consideration. It is good for us to be here. We stand where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. Clouds, indeed, and darkness, rest upon the future. Let us, however, before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that this growth of our national prosperity has happened within the short period of the life of man. It has happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose memory might touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress. He was in 1704 of an age at least to be made to comprehend such things. He was then old enough "acta parentum jam legere, et quæ sit poterit cognoscere virtus." Suppose, sir, that the angel of this 7 Mr. Burke in adapting this passage to the context, has changed some of the words and omitted others, so as to render the construction obscure. When he made the first infinitive, legere, dependent on the preceding English phrase, he should have done the same with cognoscere, omitting poterit. Thus it would read, "He was then old enough to read the exploits of his ancestors, and learn what virtue is." where the poet predicts the birth of a child who At simul heroum laudes et acta Parentis In thus alluding to Lord Bathurst, Mr. Burke undoubtedly thought of him only as advanced in years, without reflecting on his exact age. He was born in 1684, and was therefore, in 1704, not only "of an age to be made to comprehend such things," but on the verge of manhood, and actually took his seat in Parliament the next year, 1705. The son of Lord Bathurst, referred to above, was Henry, created Lord Apsley, and raised to the dignity of Lord Chancellor in 1771. |