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expensive war for the attainment of America: the struggle we shall now have to keep it, will be but of little expense.
General Conway observed, that the right honorable gentleman who spoke last, had spoken with some degree of warmth, which the present debate, he apprehended, did not at all call for. I will just say one very short word, he said, in favour of the Bill. I am particularly happy in the mode of punishment that is adopted in it, but I disclaim any thing in the debate that tends to call up old sores, or create anger. I was much for the repeal of the Stamp Act, and am not ashamed to own it; nor do I think that that measure was the reason of these disorders.
Mr. R. Fuller said, we all agree, that the Bostonians ought to be punished, but we differ in the mode of it. He did not insist any farther.
The debate ended, and the blanks were filled up in the Bill. It was then read.
On the question upon the clause, which vests the power in the Crown to restore the port,
Mr. Charles Fox said, he should give it his negative, as it was trusting the Crown with that power which Parliament were afraid to trust themselves with; and if he did not succeed in his negative to this clause, he should object to the clause following, which seemed to militate against the measure adopted in this, as a restraint was then laid upon the Crown until the East India Company were made satisfaction. This Bill, he said, was calculated for three purposes; the first for securing the trade, the second for punishing the Bostonians, and the third for satisfaction to the East India Company. He said, the first clause did not give a true and exact distinction by what means, and at what period, the Crown was to exercise that power vested in it; he thought that application for relief should come to Parliament only, and that the power of such relief should not be lodged in the Crown. The quarrel, he said, was with Parliament, and Parliament was the proper power to end it; not that, said he, (in a kind of sneer) there is any reason to distrust his Majesty's Ministers, that they will not restore the port when it shall be proper; but I want to hear the reason why this clause should be so left in the judgment of the Crown, and the next clause should be so particularly granted, with such a guard upon his Majesty, to prevent him from restoring the port until the East India Company shall be fully satisfied.
Captain Phipps said, that nothing surely was so proper as to allow the Crown that power which always had been attributed to it, that of mercy; his Majesty cannot deprive the People of a port without the leave of Parliament, but he may certainly give one; as to the power being lodged in the Crown, of restoring the port upon proper contrition, it is highly proper, and not in Parliament, for Parliament may not be sitting at the time when the trade of Boston ought to be restored; that power which has a right to give a port, has also a power of appointing quays and wharfs; if the power was not lodged in the Crown, quays and wharfs might be made at places totally inconvenient to the customhouse officers, and thereby prevent the collection of his Majesty's revenue.
Lord North. The test of the Bostonians will not be the indemnification of the East India Company alone, it will remain in the breast of the King, not to restore the port until peace and obedience shall be observed in the port of Boston. I am ready to admit a clause to secure those wharfs and quays which are now in use, to be the same when the port shall be restored. He observed, he had been charged with changing his opinion; that the declaration which he had made tended chiefly to the punishment of the Bostonians, and that the Bill particularly adhered to the views of making the India Company satisfaction. He believed the House would do him the justice to say, that he had declared both those measures to be his intention at the first setting out of the business, as well as to restore the trade to a proper footing; that he hoped he had never deviated from them, notwithstanding what the honorable gentleman, (Mr. Fox) had charged him with; that he should never be ashamed, at any time, to give up his opinion upon good grounds; it would be the height of obstinacy not to do it, when he saw any good reasons to guide his opinion to better judgment.
Mr. Van said, he agreed to the flagitiousness of the offence in the Americans, and therefore was of opinion, that the town of Boston ought to be knocked about their ears, and destroyed. Delenda est Carthago: said he, I am of opinion you will never meet with that proper obedience to the laws of this country, until you have destroyed that nest of locusts.
Colonel Barré said, he had very little thoughts of troubling the Committee upon this clause, but for an expression which fell from an honorable gentleman under the gallery, delenda est Carthago. I should not have risen, said he, had it not been for those words. The Bill before you is the first vengeful step that you have taken. We ought to go coolly to this business, and not trouble our heads with who passed, or who repealed the Stamp Act, or other taxes. We are to proceed rebus sic stantibus. The proposition made ye I thought a moderate one, though I must confess I hate the word fine; it is a tax, and as long as I sit here among you, I will oppose the taxing of America. This Bill, I am afraid, draws in the fatal doctrine of submitting to taxation; it is also a doubt by this Bill, whether the port is to be restored to its full extent. Keep your hands out of the pockets of the Americans, and they will be obedient subjects. I have not a doubt, but a very small part of our strength will, at any time, overpower them. I think this Bill a moderate one; but I augur that the next proposition will be a black one. You have not a loom nor an anvil but what is stamped with America; it is the main prop of your trade. Parliament may fancy that they have rights in theory, which I will answer for, they can never reduce to practice. America employs all your workmen here: nourish and protect it, that they may be supported.
The clause objected to by Mr. Charles Fox, passed in the Affirmative without any division, but one or two negatives being given against it.
The Committee then rose.
Sir Charles Whitworth reported from the Committee, that they had gone through the Bill, and made several amendments thereunto.
The amendments were agreed to by the House; and several amendments were made by the House to the Bill.
Ordered, That the Bill with the amendments be engrossed.
Ordered, That the said Bill be read the third time, tomorrow morning, if the said Bill shall be then engrossed.
THURSDAY, March 24, 1774.
Ordered, That the said Bill be read the third time, tomorrow at twelve of the clock.
FRIDAY, March 25, 1774.
Mr. Crosbie offered to present a Petition of William Bollan, Esq., (styling himself agent) for and in behalf of the Council of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and likewise of himself and the other inhabitants of the town of Boston.
And a motion being made, that the said Petition be brought up; it produced a short, but warm debate.*
And the question being put, the House divided; yeas 40, nays 170.
So it passed in the Negative.
A Petition of several Natives of North America, was presented to the House, and read; setting forth,
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