be let loose upon a People unaccustomed to licentiousness and intemperance. On the one hand will be a People who have been long complaining of oppression, and see in the soldiery those who are to enforce it upon them; on the other, an army studiously prepossessed with the idea of that People being rebellious, unawed by the apprehension of civil controul, and actuated by that arbitrary spirit which prevails even among the best of troops. In this situation the prudent officer will find it impossible to restrain his soldiers or prevent that provocation which will rouse the tamest People to resistance. The inevitable consequence will be that you will produce the rebellion you pretend to obviate.

I have been bred a soldier; have served long. I respect the profession, and live in the strictest habits of friendship with a great many officers; but there is not a country gentleman of you all, who looks upon the army with a more jealous eye, or would more strenuously resist the setting them above the controul of the civil power. No man is to be trusted in such a situation; it is not a fault of the soldier, but the vice of human nature, which, unbridled by law, becomes insolent and licentious, wantonly violates the peace of society, and tramples upon the rights of human kind.

With respect to those gentlemen who are destined to this service, they are much to be pitied. It is a service, which an officer of feeling and of worth must enter upon with infinite reluctance; a service, in which his only merit must be, to bear much, and do little. With the melancholy prospect before him of commencing a civil war, and embruing his hands in the blood of his fellow subjects, his feelings, his life, his honour, are hazarded, without a possibility of any equivalent or compensation. You may perhaps think a law, founded upon this motion will be his protection, I am mistaken if it will. Who is to execute it? He must be a bold man indeed who makes the attempt. If the People are so exasperated, that it is unsafe to bring the man who has injured them to trial, let the Governor who withdraws him from justice look to himself. The People will not endure it; they would no longer deserve the reputation of being descended from the loins of Englishmen, if they did endure it.

When I stand up as an advocate for America, I feel myself the firmest friend of this country. We stand upon the commerce of America. Alienate your Colonies, and you will subvert the foundation of your riches and your strength, Let the banners of rebellion be once spread in America, and you are an undone People. You are urging it with such violence, and by measures tending so manifestly to that fatal point, that, but that a state of madness only could inspire such an intention, it would appear to be your deliberate purpose. In assenting to your late Bill I resisted the violence of America, at the hazard of my popularity there. I now resist your phrenzy at the same risk here. You have changed your ground. You are becoming the aggressors, and offering the last of human outrages to the People of America, by subjecting them, in effect, to military execution. I know the vast superiority of your disciplined troops over the provincials; but beware how you supply the want of discipline by desperation. Instead of sending them the olive branch, you have sent the naked sword. By the olive branch, I mean a repeal of all the late laws, fruitless to you, and oppressive to them.

Ask their aid in a constitutional manner, and they will give it to the utmost of their ability. They never yet refused it, when properly required. Your Journals bear the recorded acknowledgments of the zeal with which they have contributed to the general necessities of the State. What madness is it that prompts you to attempt obtaining that by force which you may more certainly procure by requisition? They may be flattered into any thing, but they are too much like yourselves to be driven. Have some indulgence for your own likeness; respect their sturdy English virtue; retract your odious exertions of authority, and remember that the first step towards making them contribute to your wants, is it to reconcile them to your Government.

Mr. Solicitor General Wedderburn. I take this Bill to be nothing more than conveying a general security to all persons whatsoever, as well as the military. It is necessary there should be a reform of the laws, and a proper security under such magisterial authority. The Americans do not attack the law, otherwise than attacking the Legislature that made it. It is not this nor that law that is particularly disagreeable to them; they say, no laws shall be put in force there: you say, all laws shall. A singular case may happen of not meeting with that fair trial which is expected; this Bill will be a remedy for it; it is a temporary relief for the limited space of three years. They have, in that country, an unwillingness to obey all Magistrates, who have authority from this country, acting under its laws; nay, they even dispute the commission, and may not allow the appointment; a trial, in such a case, would certainly be doubtful. The revenue law gives the power of trial in another country; this case is a direct precedent of that impartial trial at which you want to come; for if you cannot have it in one county, you must remove and try to find it in another. No man will deny me the doctrine, that such fair trial ought and must be had. It is now no longer a question of expediency, it is a question of necessity; and it will he found necessary, at all events to break into their charters, if you mean to produce that subordination which you are seeking; but I hope, and firmly wish, that even the idea of your authority being known to them, will at once prevent the exertion of it. I agree with the honorable gentleman, that the olive branch ought to go in one hand, but the sword should be carried in the other. Peace will be established upon proper principles, when there is a power to enforce it; and your authority once established, I would then drop the point of the sword, and make use of the olive branch, as far and as much as possible. I could very easily tell the colour of all which has already happened in America, and the ground from which it arose; but I stop short, hoping that when they see and know that you have both courage and firmness to proceed in your plan, it will prevent even the exertion of this necessary measure. I would not have them be too confident in our weakness and irresolution, but adopt the measure of reformation, as arising and occasioned by our firmness and courage in the exertion of those powers which are entrusted to us for the preservation of the peace of our Colonies.

Captain Phipps. I commend much, and am glad to hear of, the appointment of General Gage. I think his abilities and knowledge of the People of that country will sufficiently ensure to him their affections, and be a means of inducing them to obey those measures which are to be executed under his direction; and as much approve of the removal of one of the worst, one of the most exceptionable servants the Crown ever had, I mean Governor Hutchinson. I wish to see the Bill before us without the trial by Jury, for I always apprehended that the advantage of such trial was from the vicinage, and by men who knew the circumstances, as well as the characters of the offenders; nor do I wish to see men sent to England to be tried. These men in America are all brought up to mercantile business, and I do not know any recompense or satisfaction whatever that can be made to a man for the loss of his time in coming here and going back. I wish much for unanimity, because I think it would add a chief support to our measures; but I think it impossible to send a man from America to be tried here, when we are three thousand miles asunder. It would be better that America and England were separated entirely, than to offer to bring men here to be tried. I wish this Bill to go on without that trial by Jury. I wish much also the removal of Governor Bernard, because he was the first man who opposed a revenue law. He did it upon the same principle as a smuggler does, because he would lose by it. If this Bill goes on in its present form, it will extort from me that opinion in my vote of affirmative, which I am unwilling to give.

Mr. T. Townshend. I cannot, Sir, agree with my honorable friend, in approving of the removal of Governor Hutchinson. The Bill is one of those measures to which I can easily give my consent as, I think, it contains a security that the lives of innocent men may be safe. I approve much of the appointment of General Gage; and as I do not find that the troops are with him, I must express a wish that they may be able to arrive time enough to prevent a riot, sooner than to quell one, and to let America see we do not want to quarrel with them upon mere punctilio; do not let us, for God's sake, when we have asserted our authority to all that we wish to do, and enforced that obedience, continue that little paltry duty upon tea; let us, then, nobly lay aside those little, teazing, irritating measures,