which are to be enacted in that Bill, without application to Parliament, such as changing the custom-house officers, ordering the peace to be preserved, and a better regulation of internal Government to take place; but that they could not block up a port, or make it illegal for the landing, lading, and shipping of goods in any place heretofore granted, without the aid of Parliament. I will not undertake to say what will be the consequence or event of this measure; I am strongly of opinion it will be salutary and effective; but I will say, that it was not in the power of the Minister to sit still and take no measure. I believe, Sir, that no prosecution in that country, according to its present form of Government, will be effectual; I was therefore much for adopting the measure proposed. It certainly may be right to direct a prosecution against those individuals who may be found offenders; but can the honorable gentleman be of opinion, from what he has seen and read from the papers on the table, that any obedience will be paid to such a prosecution, or that it will be in the least degree effective? This measure will certainly not excuse the individual offenders, any more than the fine upon a county, between sun and sun, will excuse the person who committed the robbery. This is no ex-post-facto law; they committed the offence of destroying the tea, knowing and declaring at the same time, the law which they offended against. The Committee of Boston, Sir, gave the directions for the destruction of the tea, and have declared their resolution of resistance to the obedience of our laws; yet we are desired to hear them; to hear those very persons who have declared to you, and to all the world, that they intended this violence against the law; therefore, it is said, Sir, by some honorable gentlemen in this House, that we ought not to proceed in this measure till we have heard these very People, who are the great offenders, say at your bar, in their defence, that Great Britain has no authority to tax them: they can make no other plea; they can make no other declaration than what they have already done; but, Sir, we must adopt the measure, let what will be the consequence. I hope and conclude it will be a happy one. Is this then the best measure in the present case? It certainly is: I hear of none other preferable, or I would adopt it. It is to tell America, that you are in earnest. If we do not mean totally to give up the matter in question, we must assert our right at this time, while we can, whilst it is in our power. Instead of our treating America like a foreign enemy, America has treated us like one; disavowing our authority, and declaring against all obedience to the laws of Great Britain. We are threatened again, by one honorable gentleman, lest a foreign enemy should, in this emergency, start up—he stopped short, and said he would say no more upon that head. I suppose he meant that this foreign enemy would lay hold of America during our contest. Time of peace, Sir, is the only season for adopting regulations. This is the crisis, then, in which that contest ought to be determined. Another honorable friend of mine is for repealing the Tea Duty. I am of opinion, Sir, that repealing any measure whatever, at this moment, would stamp us with a degree of timidity, and would produce a totally different effect from what I expect this measure will do.

Governor Johnstone, I find so much difficulty in pronouncing my sentiments at any time, that unless the House is kindly disposed to hear me at this late hour, I shall patiently sit down, because I am conscious it will require their greatest indulgence, to enable me to express myself in a manner worthy of their attention. A modesty becoming my situation prevented me from offering my opinion before, when I saw men of so much superior ability rising from the beginning of the debate.

It may appear arrogant in a member so inferior, as I confess myself to be, to offer objections to a Bill so extensive in its consequences, under every consideration, especially after it must have been so maturely considered, in every article, by men so distinguished by their talents, and high stations in office, besides the general applause which has followed the Bill in its rapid progress through this House: nevertheless, though naturally diffident of my opinion, when I had the good or bad fortune (I dont know which to term it) of prognosticating to the Chairman of the East India Company the consequences of sending this tea, on their own account, to America, and that the event has literally fulfilled my words, as it is well known to some members now in my eye, it makes me more confident in warning the House of what I apprehend will be the consequences of this Bill.

I told the Chairman of the East India Company, first in conversation, on asking my opinion, and afterwards by letter, that the evidence might appear in the progress of things; that I conceived the East India Company exporting tea, on their own account, was, under every consideration of their situation, and institution, WRONG, but, under the present discontents and disputed matters of Government in America, CRIMINALLY ABSURD, because they were presenting themselves as the butt in the controversy, where they would probably come off with the loss of the whole. The event has justified my prediction; for whatever repayment the Company may obtain from the town of Boston, under these cruel coercive measures now proposed, (the effect of which I still doubt,) yet the Company must remain great losers, even if the other Provinces, equally culpable, are made to refund the loss arising from their conduct, because it was not supplies of cash, at a distant period, the Company wanted, but an IMMEDIATE SUPPLY, to answer a temporary exigency, which a combination of the enemies of the country had produced.

I now venture to predict to this House, that the effect of the present Bill must be productive of a General Confederacy, to resist the power of this country. It is irritating, tempting nay, inviting men to those deeds by ineffectual expedients, the abortions of an undecisive mind, incapable of comprehending the chain of consequences which must result from such a law. I am not one of those who believe that distant Provinces can be retained in their duty by preaching or enchantments; I believe that FORCE or POWER, conducted with WISDOM, are the means of securing regular obedience under every establishment; but that such force should never be applied to any degree of rigour, unless it should carry the general approbation of mankind in the execution. However much such approbation may prevail at the particular moment in this House, it is impossible to believe the sense of Great Britain, or the sense of America, can go to the punishing a particular town, for resisting the payment of the Tea Tax, which is universally odious throughout America, and is held in ridicule and contempt by every thinking man in this country. The question of taxing America is sufficiently nice to palliate resistance, if the subject had never been litigated in this country; but after the highest characters in this State had declared against the right of this country to impose taxes on America, for the purpose of revenue; after the general voice of the Senate had concurred in repealing the Stamp Act, upon that principle; after those men, who had maintained these doctrines, had been promoted by his Majesty to the first stations in the administration of civil and judicial affairs, there is so much mitigation to be pleaded in favor of the Americans from those circumstances (allowing them in an error at present) that every man must feel the height of cruelty, by enforcing contrary maxims, with any degree of severity, at first, before due warning is given.

It is in vain to say Boston is more culpable than the other Colonies. Sending the ships from thence, and obliging them to return to England, is a more solemn and deliberated act of resistance than the outrage committed by persons in disguise in the night, when the ship refused to depart. That of blocking up the harbour of Boston, to prevent the importation of British manufactures, or the exportation of goods, which are to pay for them, is a measure equally as absurd as if the Parliament here, upon the resistance which was made to their resolution, by the riots at Brentford, and other disturbances in the county of Middlesex, had decreed by way of punishment, that the freeholders should have been prohibited from sowing of wheat. For whose benefit do the inhabitants of Boston toil and labour? The springs in the circle of commerce bear so nicely on each other, that few men can tell by interrupting one, the degree and extent to which the rest may be exposed. By excluding the importation of molasses, and the exportation of that spirit which is distilled at Boston, the whole Guinea trade will be affected, and in consequence, the sugar trade, that depends upon it. In extending this kind of punishment to the other Colonies, every one must see the danger; and yet, if it can be approved for one, the same arguments will hold good to approve or reject it