chains and sordid affluence, and who will die in defence of their rights as men—as freemen. What shall oppose this spirit, aided by the congenial flame glowing in the breast of every Whig in England, to the amount, I hope, of at least double the American numbers? Ireland they have to a man. In that country, joined as it is with the cause of the Colonies, and placed at their head, the distinction I contend for is and must be observed.

My Lords, this country superintends and controls their trade and navigation, but they tax themselves. And this distinction between external and internal control, is sacred and insurmountable; it is involved in the abstract nature of things. Property is private, individual, absolute. Trade is an extended and complicated consideration; it reaches as far as ships can sail, or winds can blow: it is a great and various machine. To regulate the numberless movements of its several parts, and combine them into effect for the good of the whole, requires the superintending wisdom and energy of the supreme power in the Empire. But this supreme power has no effect towards internal taxation; for it does not exist in that relation. There is no such thing, no such idea in this Constitution, as a supreme power operating upon property.

Let this distinction, then, remain forever ascertained. Taxation is theirs; commercial regulation is ours. As an American I would recognize to England her supreme right of regulating Commerce and Navigation. As an Englishman, by birth and principle, I recognize to the Americans their supreme, unalienable right in their Property; a right which they are justified in the defence of, to the last extremity. To maintain this principle is the common cause of the Whigs on the other side of the Atlantic, and on this. "Tis liberty to liberty engaged," that they will defend themselves, their families, and their country. In this great cause they are immovably allied. It is the alliance of God and nature—immutable, eternal, fixed as the firmament of Heaven.

To such united force, what force shall be opposed? What, my Lords, a few Regiments in America, and seventeen or eighteen thousand men at home! The idea is too ridiculous to take up a moment of your Lordships' time; nor can such a national and principled union be resisted by the tricks of office or Ministerial manœuvres. Laying papers on your table, or counting noses on a division, will not avert or postpone the hour of danger. It must arrive, my Lords, unless these fatal Acts are done away; it must arrive in all its horrours; and then these boastful Ministers, 'spite of all their confidence and all their manœuvres, shall be forced to hide their heads.

But it is not repealing this Act of Parliament or that Act of Parliament; it is not repealing a piece of parchment that can restore America to your bosom. You must repeal her fears and her resentments, and you may then hope for her love and gratitude. But now, insulted with an armed force posted in Boston, irritated with an hostile array before her eyes, her concessions, if you could force them, would be suspicious and insecure: they will be irato animo; they will not be the sound, honourable pactions of freemen; they will be the dictates of fear and the extortions of force. But it is more than evident that you cannot force them, principled and united as they are, to your unworthy terms of submission. It is impossible. And when I hear General Gage censured for inactivity, I must retort with indignation on those whose intemperate measures and improvident councils have betrayed him into his present situation. His situation reminds me, my Lords, of the answer of a French General in the civil wars of France, Monsieur Turenne, I think. The Queen said to him, with some pevishness, I observe that you were often very near the Prince during the campaign, why did you not take him? The Mareschal replied with great coolness—J'avois grand peur, qui Monsieur le Prince ne me pris. I was very much afraid the Prince would take me.

When your Lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America; when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make if your own—for myself I must declare and avow that, in all my reading and observation, and it has been my favourite study—I have read Thucidydes, and have studied and admired the master states of the world—that for solidity of reasoning, forge of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no Nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your Lordships, that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty Continental Nation, must be vain, must be futile. We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract whilst we can, not when we must. I say we must necessarily undo these violent and oppressive Acts; they must be repealed; yon will repeal them; I pledge myself for it, that you will in the end repeal them; I stake my reputation on it; I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed. Avoid then this humiliating, disgraceful necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, make the first advances to concord, to peace and happiness; for that is your true dignity, to act with prudence and with justice. That you should first concede, is obvious from sound and rational policy. Concession comes with better grace, and more salutary effect, from the superiour power. It reconciles superiority of power with the feelings of men, and establishes solid confidence in the foundation of affection and gratitude. So thought a wise poet, and a wise man in political sagacity, the friend of Macenas; and the eulogist of Augustus. To him the adopted son and successor of the first Casar, to him, the master of the world, he wisely urged this conduct of prudence and dignity; "Tuque prior, tu parce; projice tola manu."

Every motive, therefore, of justice and of policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America, by a removal of your Troops from Boston, by a repeal of your Acts of Parliament, and by demonstration of amicable dispositions towards your Colonies. On the other hand, every danger and every hazard, impend to deter you from perseverance in your present ruinous measures. Foreign war hanging over your heads by a slight and brittle thread; France and Spain watching your conduct and waiting for the maturity of your errours; with a vigilant eye to America and the temper of your Colonies, more than to their own concerns, be they what they may.

To conclude, my Lords, if the Ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the King, I will not say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown; but I will affirm, that they will make the crown not worth his wearing. I shall not say that the King is betrayed; but I will pronounce that the Kingdom is undone.

He then moved, "That an humble Address be presented to his Majesty, most humbly to advise and beseech his Majesty, that, in order to open the ways towards an happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments, and soften animosities there; and, above all, for preventing in the mean time, any sudden and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily irritation of an Army before their eyes, posted in their Town: it may graciously please his Majesty, that immediate orders may be despatched to General Gage, for removing his Majesty's Forces from the Town of Boston, as soon as the rigour of the season, and other circumstances indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said Troops, may render the same practicable."

The Earl of Suffolk condemned the conduct of the Americans in the most determined and unreserved terms. He complimented the noble Earl on his great abilities, but begged leave to pronounce him mistaken, in almost every position he laid down; and thought it extremely improper, considering the present alarming state of America, to cause divisions, and by so doing, to weaken the force of the parent state. He observed, that the noble Earl had animadverted severely on those who had, or were supposed to have advised the measure of dissolving the Parliament; and had likewise thrown out some insinuations, directed against the supposed authors of the present intentions of Administration. As to the first, he avowed himself to be one of the principal advisers, as he looked upon it, nay, foresaw from the beginning, that all the steps taken by the Americans, in Congress and elsewhere, would be to influence the general election by creating jealousies, fears, arid prejudices, among the mercantile and trading part of the Nation; that lie was happy the ideas he espoused had prevailed, by which means those sinister designs were prevented from taking effect; that he was happy to find, his conjectures