into excesses; the history of mankind declares it in every page; and Britons ought to view, with an eye of tender ness, acts of imprudence, to which their fellow-subjects in America may have been hurried; not as has been unkindly said, by a rebellious spirit, but by that generous spirit of freedom, which has often led their own ancestors into indiscretions.

Acts of severity are far from having a tendency to eradicate jealousies: on the contrary, they must produce new fears, and endanger that attachment and obedience which kindness and gentleness might have insured.

No country has been more happy in its Colonies than Great Britain. Connected by mutual interests (till the era of the fatal Stamp Act) they flourished in an intercourse of amity, protection, and obedience, supporting and supported by each other. Before that hated period, we meet with no instances of disobedience to your laws, no denial of the jurisdiction of Parliament, no marks of jealousy and discontent. They ever loved liberty; their zeal for it is coeval with their first emigration to America. They were persecuted for it in this country; they sought a sanctuary in the unexplored regions of that. They cleared their inhospitable wilds, cultivated their lands, and poured the wealth which they derived from agriculture and commerce into the bosom of the mother country.

You protected them in their infant state, and they returned it, by confining to you the benefits of their trade. You regulated their commerce for the advantage of this country, and they never discovered an opposition, either to the authority or the exercise of it. Are these evidences of a spirit of disaffection to Great Britain, or ingratitude for its protection? Are they not rather proofs, that if the same line of mild and lenient government had been pursued, the same cordiality and submission would have been continued.

Every American, who loves his country, must wish the prosperity of Great Britain, and that their union may ever subsist uninterrupted. If the parental trunk is injured, the branches must suffer with it. A subordination on the part of the Colonies is essential to this union. I acknowledge, sir, that there must exist a power somewhere to superintend and regulate the movements of the whole, for the attainment and preservation of our common happiness: this supreme power can be justly and adequately exercised only by the Legislature of Great Britain. In this doctrine the Colonies tacitly acquiesced, and were happy. England enjoyed by it all the advantages of an exclusive trade. Why, then, strain this authority so much, as to render a submission to it impossible, without a surrender of those liberties which are most valuable in civil society, and were ever acknowledged the birthright of Englishmen? When Great Britain derives from her Colonies the most ample supplies of wealth by her commerce, is it not absurd to close up those channels, for the sake of a claim of imposing taxes, which (though a young Member) I will dare to say, never have, and probably never will, defray the expense of collecting them?

The expediency of coercive measures is much insisted on by some, who, I am sorry to say, seem to consider more the distress into which they will involve the Americans, than the benefits they can procure from such vindictive conduct to this country. Humanity, however, will prompt the generous mind to weep over severities, though they may be even necessary; and a prudent Statesman will reflect, that the Colonies cannot suffer without injury to Great Britain. They are your customers; they consume your manufactures—by distressing them, if you do not drive them to foreign markets, you will most assuredly disable them from taking your commodities, and from making you returns for what they have taken.

Should coercive measures reduce them to an acknowledgment of the equity of Parliamentary taxation, what are the advantages which will result from it? Can it be thought that the Americans will be dragooned into a conviction of this right? Will severities increase their affection, and make them more desirous of a connection with, and dependence on Great Britain? Is it not, on the contrary, reasonable to conclude, that the effect will be an increase of jealousy and discontent; that they will seek all occasions of evading laws imposed on them by violence; that they will be restless under the yoke, and think themselves happy under an opportunity of flying to the protection of any other power, from the subjection of a mother, whom they consider cruel and vindictive?

I would not be understood, sir, to deny the good intentions of Administration. The abilities of the Minister, it seems, are universally acknowledged; but I must add, humanum est errare. Though an American, I applaud his jealousy for the dignity of Parliament, and think the impolicy and inexpediency of the late measures may reasonably be imputed to the difficulty of the occasion, and the unsettled and undefined nature of the dependence of the Colonies on the mother country; and vice versa, candour must admit the same apology for the violences and mistakes of America.

But since these measures have been found, by sad experience, totally inadequate; since they have widened the breach, instead of closing it; diminished the obedience of the Colonies, instead of confirming it; increased the turbulence and opposition, instead of allaying them; it may be hoped, that a different plan of conduct may be pursued, and some firm and liberal constitution adopted by the wisdom of this House, which may secure the Colonists in their liberties, while it maintains the just supremacy of Parliament.

Sir William Mayne drew a melancholy picture of the sufferings of the Irish; said that all promises had been shamefully broken with them; that pensions to the amount of ten thousand Pounds per annum, had been lately granted on that miserable, ruined, and undone country; and that the Castle was an asylum to every needy, servile, cringing apostate, that would bow the knee, and barter every thing which should be dear to him, for emolument and Court favour.

Lord North took notice, that an honourable gentleman (Governour Johnstone) had alluded to something he had said on a former occasion relative to Great Britain never receding or relaxing, till America was at her feet; his Lordship observed, that it was hardly fair to quote what a man had said seven years before, and what he had explained on the spot before he left the House; this explanation then, and now was, he said, that by being at the feet of Great Britain, he meant obedience to the mother country; such as, if they thought themselves aggrieved, to apply by petitions and dutiful remonstrances to the Parliament or the Throne. He said, he thought it the duty of every Member, as well in the House as out of it, to interpret what might fall in the heat of debate, or warm discussion, in the manner it was explained by the speaker; that if he had been thus candidly dealt with, the author of a late pamphlet, written in America, could never have asserted that he insisted that Britain should never recede till the laws and liberties of America were at her feet: for as he never meant one, so he never said the other. And he wished, that on the present occasion, he should be understood according to his present explanation, and no other.

Mr. Hartley was for making the Americans contribute to the general defence of the Empire, by way of a requisition, and read one or two passages in some American proceedings, to shew their willingness to comply with such a measure.

The Resolution was then agreed to.

SATURDAY, December 17, 1774.

Ordered, That Lord Barrington do make the Report from the Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider further of the Supply granted to his Majesty.

The Lord Barrington accordingly reported from the said Committee the Resolutions which the Committee had directed to be reported to the House; which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the Clerk's table, where the same were read, and are as followeth, viz:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee that a number of Land forces, including one thousand five hundred and twenty-two invalids, amounting to seventeen thousand five hundred and forty-seven effective men, commissioned and non-commissioned Officers included, be employed for the year 1775.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a sum not exceeding six hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and eighty-nine Pounds, nineteen Shil-