has clothed herself in mean and coarse stuffs; she has adopted the wise system of frugal industry. Her wants can be only ideal, imaginary, nothing.

But, my Lords, what will be the state of this civilized, enilightened, dissipated and debauched country? How shall the want of American Commerce he supplied, of that, commerce which contributes the means of your luxury, of your enjoyments, of the imaginary happiness of this country? We may feel the loss of American connection, a loss which nothing can compensate; but America will have little reason to regret her disconnection from England; and, my Lords, it is evident that England must one clay lose the dominion of America. It is impossible that this petty Island can continue in dependence that mighty Continent, increasing daily in numbers and in strength. To protract the time of separation to a distant day is all that can be hoped; and this hope might be obtained by wise and temperate counsels; not by precipitation and violence, uniting America against you: for so it is, my Lords; there is not, a man, in America, who can endure the idea of being taxed, perhaps to the amount of his whole property, at pleasure, by a Legislature three thousand miles distant; or who can separate the idea of taxation from representation. The groundless and interested rumours that are spread, of discord among the Americans, can only impose on the grossest ignorance. They are considered, as the cry of the Court, the talk of the day, and meet with the contempt they deserve. But, my Lords, when Administration attempt to join in the imposture, I cannot but think it most humiliating and disgraceful: and such is the attempt made in the exception in favour of New-York. The world is to be deceived into an opinion that New-York detached from the general cause, and this dirty, humiliating contrivance, is to create, distrust and disunion in America: and this, when the directly contrary state of the Province is will known. Do not they send Delegates to Congress: to that Congress, which I shall ever maintain to have been stirctly justifiable? And, my Lords, the Committee is now in the Town, most heartily and unanimously co-operating and enforcing the general cause. Such mean insidious attempts to undermine the American union, only prove its solidity and firmness, which are otherwise not to be attacked or shaken and against which, all your efforts of war must be vain and impracticable.

But, my Lords, an objection may be made to this account of the powerful and invincible state of America. It will be said, that if England cannot enforce obedience, and curb any refractory disposition that may arise in the Colonies, America might at any time revolt, and shake off the authority of the mother country. But the answer is this; that America derives the invincible strength I have described, from her union, which can only he produced by the oppressions from this country; for, my Lords, the state of America is such, that union can never originate in herself. And this was wisely consulted in the original settlement of that Continent, by the different Constitutions given to the different Provinces, forming them of such diver textures and dispositions, as not easily to unite or assimilate. Some received Royal Charter Governments; some Provincial; and some Proprietory. Some were shaped in the mould of Monarchy; others received the form of pure Democracy; and even these last were granted in a reign in which the most arbitrary counsels disgraced the Throne. But the Ministers of the Prince (Charles the Second) wisely detached them from each other, knowing that different forms of Government would give them different directions. And so it was. They could never, for themselves merely coincide or co-operate. You might as easily have reconciled fire and water, as have brought Virginia to shake hands with Pennsylvania, or associated New-York to the Massachusetts Bay. And if any one Colony could have ever been infatuated into an attempt entirely to throw off the dependence on this country, she would have had few or none to join her. The contest would then be speedily decided, and very different would be the efforts of divided America against united England, from the force which now resists you, the collected force of united America against England, weakened and divided. For such, my Lords, us the state to which the present measures have brought both countries. At home, discontent and division prevail; and in America it was reserved for the wisdom of these times to produce such an union as renders her invincible. The Americans are now united and cemented by the strongest ties. They are allied in the common defence of every thing dear to them. They are struggling pro aris et focis, in support of their liberties and properties, and the most sacred rights of mankind. Thus associated by the strongest mutual engagements, and aided by their mutual strength, grounded on the justice of their cause, I must assert and repeat, my Lords, that your efforts against them must be successless, and your war impracticable.

And now, my Lords, it remains to be considered, whether the war which this Bill produce, be necessary; for without necessity, it will not be contended that any war should be undertaken; much less a civil war, which in the first instance proscribes, and drives to famine, such multitudes of your fellow-subjects: whole Towns, and Provinces: for it is well known, that the Fishery is not only the Trade, but in a great measure, the food of New England. Now, it cannot appear that this ruinous measure, fraught with all fatal consequences, both to them and ourselves, is necessary; unless it appears that every prudent and proper endeavour has been made to accommodate, to conciliate, to pacify. If such endeavours have, been used, and used in vain, then, my Lords, there might be some colour for the present violence. But it is notorious, that not the temper of moderation and humanity, but the spirit of violence and proscription, has uniformly actuated your counsels. In the first instance, without the forms of justice, for a particular fault, you inflicted general punishment. You proceeded from their Trade, to their Municipal rights, to their Constitutions, their Charters, their liberties; and now, this bill of famine and of and war finishes the climax of severity. Such have been the counsels and the measures of Administration. Other counsels have been, given, and different measures, have, been proposed; but they have not been even considered; they were rejected with disdain; though they came from a personage whose character gave them authority, and ought to have procured them respect; a great man, (the Earl of Chatham) the greatest perhaps that this age or this country has produced, to whom this country owes her present prosperity, and, I am sorry to say it, her pride, her pride of conquest, which has infatuated her, even in this impracticable war, with the ideas of victory, and certain success; that great man, from whose opinions, though some of your Lordships may sometimes differ, yet there is not one of your Lordships who does not pay homage to his consummate capacity, his extensive talents, his great services, and his age, when he delivers those opinions from his place. I lament that I do not see him there. That great man did propose to you a plan of conciliation between this country and her Colonies. How was it received? It was treated with the most scornful contempt; rejected without being looked into; spurned, trampled upon! I protest, my Lords, I am afflicted with grief, when I reflect on the proceedings of that day; in such an arduous moment, that such a plan, the labour of such talents and such experience, should be rejected, even from jour consideration, unlooked into, with such indecent indignity. Erase it from your books; obliterate the transaction from your records; let not posterity be contradicted by history, that such could have been your conduct towards such a man!

So much, my Lords, for conciliatory plans in this House. In another House of Parliament, when a noble Lord, (North) whose character I by no means intend to reflect on, or to mention with disrespect, when he proposed what was conceived in some degree to tend towards conciliation, there was immediately a general alarm; it created almost a civil war amongst his troops, and the confusion was universal, till some of the veteran and principal officers brought back their general, and fixed and ascertained him on the old ground of severity. Nothing conciliatory, therefore, has been proposed from Administration, or received from any other quarter; but an uniform system of maxims, doctrine, and measures of violence, has been maintained. And surely be fore you resolved on measures of such magnitude, where the event is at least hazardous, certainly of the extremest importance, it was your duty to have tried all possible means of lenity, accommodation, and of prevention, and not have rushed into such fatal calamities,