A Speech intended to have been spoken on the Bill for Altering the Charters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay.*

It is of such great importance to compose or even to moderate the dissentions, which subsist at present between our unhappy country and her Colonies, that I cannot help endeavouring, from the faint prospect I have of contributing something to so good an end, to overcome the inexpressible reluctance 1 feel at uttering my thoughts before the most respectable of all audiences.

The true object of all our deliberations on this occasion, which I hope we shall never lose sight of, is a full and cordial reconciliation with North America. Now, I own, my Lords, I have many doubts whether the terrors and punishments, we hang out to them at present, are the surest means of producing this reconciliation. Let us at least do this justice to the People of North America, to own, that we can all remember a time when they were much better friends than at present to their mother country. They are neither our natural nor our determined enemies. Before the Stamp Act we considered them in the light of as good subjects as the natives of any county in England.

It is worth while to inquire by what steps we first gained their affection, and preserved it so long; and, by what conduct we have lately lost it. Such an inquiry may point out the means of restoring peace, and make the use of force unnecessary against a People, whom I cannot yet forbear to consider as our brethren.

It has always been a most arduous task to govern distant Provinces, with even a tolerable appearance of justice. The Viceroys and Governors of other nations are usually temporary tyrants, who think themselves obliged to make the most of their time; who not only plunder the People, but carry away their spoils, and dry up all the sources of commerce and industry. Taxation, in their hands, is an unlimited power of oppression: but in whatever hands the power of taxation is lodged, it implies and includes all other powers. Arbitrary taxation is plunder authorized by law: it is the support and thee ssence of tyranny; and has done more mischief to mankind, than those other three scourges from heaven, famine, pestilence, and the sword. I need not carry your Lordships out of your own knowledge, or out of your own Dominions, to make you conceive what misery this right of taxation is capable of producing in a Provincial Government. We need only recollect that our countrymen in India, have in the space of five or six years, in virtue of this right, destroyed, starved, and driven away, more inhabitants from Bengal, than are to be found at present in all our American Colonies; more than all those formidable numbers, which we have been nursing up for the space of two hundred years, with so much care and success, to the astonishment of all Europe. This is no exaggeration, my Lords, but plain matter of fact, collected from the accounts sent over by Mr. Hastings, whose name I mention with honour and veneration. And I must own, such accounts have very much lessened the pleasure I used to feel in thinking myself an Englishman. We ought surely not to hold our Colonies totally inexcusable for wishing to exempt themselves from a grievance which has caused such unexampled devastation; and, my Lords, it would be too disgraceful to ourselves, to try so cruel an experiment more than once. Let us reflect, that before these innovations were thought of, by following the line of good conduct which had been marked out by our ancestors, we governed North America with mutual benefit to them and ourselves. It was a happy idea that made us first consider them rather as instruments of commerce than as objects of Government. It was wise and generous to give them the form and spirit of our own constitution; an Assembly in which a greater equality of representation has been preserved than at home; and Councils and Governors, such as were adapted to their situation, though they must be acknowledged to be very inferior copies of the dignity of this House, and the majesty of the Crown.

But what is far more valuable than all the rest, we gave them liberty. We allowed them to use their own judgment in the management of their own interest. The idea of taxing them never entered our heads. On the contrary, they have experienced our liberality on many public occasions: we have given them bounties to encourage their industry, and have demanded no return but what every State exacts from its Colonies, the advantages of an exclusive commerce, and the regulations that are necessary to secure it. We made requisitions to them on great occasions, in the same manner as our Princes formerly asked benevolences of their subjects; and as nothing was asked but what was visibly for the public good, it was always granted; and they themselves did more than we expected. The matter of right was neither disputed, nor even considered. And let us not forget that the People of New England were themselves, during the last war, the most forward of all in the national cause; that every year we voted them a considerable sum, in acknowledgment of their zeal and their services; that in the preceding war, they alone enabled us to make the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, by furnishing us with the only equivalent for the towns that were taken from our allies in Flanders; and that in times of peace, they alone have taken from us six times as much of our woollen manufactures, as the whole Kingdom of Ireland. Such a Colony, my Lords, not only from the justice, but from the gratitude we owe them, have a right to be heard in their defence; and if their crimes are not of the most inexpiable kind, I could almost say, they have a right to be forgiven.

But in the times we speak of, our public intercourse was carried on with ease and satisfaction. We regarded them as our friends and fellow-citizens, and relied as much upon their fidelity as on the inhabitants of our own country. They saw our power with pleasure; for they considered it only as their protection. They inherited our laws, our language, and our customs; they preferred our manufactures, and followed our fashions with a partiality that secured our exclusive trade with them, more effectually than all the regulations and vigilance of the custom-house. Had we suffered them to enrich us a little longer, and to grow a little richer themselves, their men of fortune, like the West Indians, would undoubtedly have made this country their place of education and resort. For they looked up to England with reverence and affection, as to the country of their friends and ancestors. They esteemed and they called it their home, and thought of it as the Jews once thought of the Land of Canaan.

Now, my Lords, consider with yourselves what were the chains and ties that united this People to their mother country, with so much warmth and affection, at so amazing a distance. The Colonies of other nations have been discontented with their treatment, and not without sufficient cause; always murmuring at their grievances, and sometimes breaking out into acts of rebellion. Our subjects at home, with all their reasons for satisfaction, have never been entirely satisfied. Since the beginning of this centu

* This Speech by the Bishop of St. Asaph who voted against the Bill in the House of Lords, though not delivered in the House on that occasion, Was written and published by him at the time. It is considered especially proper to insert it here, because none of the speeches, in the "long debate" on the question, have been preserved His reasons for the publication, given in the Advertisment, are as follows:—

"The Author of the following speech might justify his manner of publishing it by very great authorities. Some of the noblest pieces of eloquence, the world is in possession of, were not spoken on the great occasions they were intended to serve, and seem to have been preserved merely from the high sense that was entertained of their merit.

"The present performance appears in public from humbler but juster motives: from the great national importance of the subject; from a very warm desire and some faint hope of serving our country by suggesting a few of the useful truths which great men are apt to overlook.

"The Author has abstained most religiously from personal reflections. He has censured no man, and therefore hopes he has offended no man. He feels most sensibly the misfortune of differing from many of those whom he wishes to live and act with; and from some of as much virtue and ability as this kingdom affords. But there are also great authorities on the other side; and the greatest authority can never persuade him, that it is better to extort by force, what he thinks may be gained more surely by gentle means

"He looks upon power as a coarse and mechanical instrument of Government, and holds the use of it to be particularly dangerous to the relation that subsists between a mother country and her Colonies. In such a case he doubts whether any point ought to be pursued, which cannot be carried by persuasion, by the sense of a common interest, and the exercise of a moderate authority. He thinks it unnecessary to lay down the limits of sovereignty and obedience, and more unnecessary to fight for them. If we can but restore that mutual regard and confidence, which formerly governed our whole intercourse with our Colonies, particular cases will easily provide for themselves. He acts the part of the truest patriot in this dangerous crisis, whether he lives at London or at Boston, who pursues sincerely the most lenient and conciliating measures; and wishes to restore the public peace by some better method than the slaughter of our fellow-citizens."