for the rich and the few. How is the multitude supplied, dispersed over that vast Continent, and at considerable distances from the Sea? Sir, by the same means, and necessarily so, as are practised in most countries of these Kingdoms. There are two kinds of manufacture; one active and systematick, collected under a superintendence, and brought to the markets of sale. The other is sedantry and domestick, obscure, but large; could the small and scattered parcels be gathered up for computation, as may be made of the former, from the records of publick marts. The latter lies among the wives and children of rural, of rustick families; is applied to domestick use, and rarely sees a market for sale. In the same mode the American yeomanry are furnished among themselves. The domestick manufacture must, in course, be large for the use of sach numbers; the active for sale is far from maturity among them; but necessity, urged against them, may extend the arts and materials, already indubitably possessed; and enthusiasm may stamp on their home-spun all the value, all the pride of ornament.

Sir, I foresee these differences with America will be composed, and how? Their silence becomes me best. It will be so late, that Great Britain must receive a wound, which no time can heal. A philosophical sense of dignity must step in under the shape of consolation.

This reflection I wish to obviate, and will state a strong question from the other side. Admitting, if I please, the practicability of the Colonist supplying his wants with his own homely manufacture, improvable too by time and experience; yet will not an interruption to the vent of his own produce, and to the profits of his trade, be a loss of such magnitude, as may quickly, and with an intermediate stagnation, too short for us sensibly to feel, reduce his mind to a state of humiliation? The interruption, I allow, will be a loss to individuals; large to some, and small to many, and operate in degrees proportionate to situations and tempers. The trading class foresee it already, and are humbled enough to submit if they could. Those who keep them in awe, the multitude of small, but independent proprietors of land, may feel their part of the loss so light, as not to relax the restiff spirit which they have manifested down to this day; and may be strengthened by a truth too obvious, that America, as a publick, must be a gainer by such interruption.

She always hath been, and is now, largely indebted to the British Merchants; a proof that the nett value of her annual produce and remittances, through the circuitions of her trade, hath ever been short of her purchases here. So far as this difference reaches, whether small or large; so far as she substitutes more of her own labour in the stead of ours, for her own wants, just so much will be, on a general balance, a clear profit to her community, while the intercourse with ours is stopped, and a loss to Great Britain irrecoverable, so far as, during the melancholy interval, the arts of manufacture may be better established, and more extended in that Continent; but if extended beyond frugal uses, the yeomanry there will sink into futile and enervating enjoyments, the source of venality and discord; and in their turn verify a celebrated axiom in politicks, that discontents, murmurs, profusion, and outward shew, are the sure signs of a state in decay.

Sir, you have repeatedly heard before this day of the large debt from the Colonists to our Merchants; an uncontrovertible truth, to the permanent amount of millions. Grieved as humanity must be at any occurrence which puts such a property and so many meritorious subjects in peril, or even under a temporary anxiety, yet such being the course of that trade, the effect of a voluntary conduct, publick policy hath cause to rejoice, at the same time to acknowledge a high, though unsought obligation to the Merchant, who, by this practice, holds in his hand the principal bond of Colony dependence, enforces the Act of Navigation, and becomes, in the publick behalf, the true guardian of that half divine law,, the work of penetration and wisdom, equal to the great man who framed it. Illicit traffick is common to all regions and Governments; nor to be avoided in any, but by a strict care not to lead into temptation. Upon the whole, no commercial regulation hath been more accurately observed than the Act of Navigation, to which the American Congress most intelligibly submits, and which, in their deprivation of capital privileges and liberties, enjoyed by their fellow-subjects here, comprehends their contribution for protection; an Act which hath generally been well obeyed by them, and the Merchant at home hath made it their interest. A foreign correspondent might account most justly for the nett proceeds of Tobacco, Rice, Sugar, &c., but will not give credit for a stiver more; and for that reason doth not receive such consignments even from the less scrupulous observers of the law. The British Merchant, on a hundred Pounds, netted from a consignment, readily supplies the American's wants for a hundred and twenty, thirty, how far is immaterial. This accommodation he hath not, and through long habit doth not try to have from any quarter out of Great Britain, and therefore chooses to send his produce through her channel; nor will a few exceptions invalidate the argument: and till the awful volume of earthly vicissitudes shall disclose the fatal page, where that Omnipotent Hand, which hath lifted up and cast down the proudest Dominion of old, may have written the designation of Empire to the child; till then the Merchant of Great Britain will keep the child in all possible dependence on the parent.

Sir, after all, though my fellow-subjects rise more and more in the flattering confidence, that the Colonies will not adhere to their Agreements, I do not commit myself in asserting the contrary; I do not pronounce, that they will; I only suggest, that they may; and on that supposition have attempted to shew, what England, Scotland, and Ireland stake on the contest; nothing less than a long-approved and successful system, embracing every circumstance of national stability, prosperity, and lustre. For what this is put in hazard, I humbly hope is a question too serious for casuistry; and, I humbly believe, solely to be measured by expediency and practicability, under the direction of that great Council, which holds the guardianship of three Kingdoms, and their boundless dependencies.

Right, authority, sovereignty, dignity, supremacy, are admitted to the utmost extent of their ground. Is there not another ground antecedent and original, that from the nature of mankind, there never was, nor is, and never will be a community who, after the possession of benefits, delivered down from father to son for more than a century, will be persuaded to relinquish such possession by any plea of law and right, urged with all the eloquence of advocates? A force superiour to argument is requisite, which brings the question back to expediency and practicability.

Conceive not, sir, that our very thoughts have presumed to interfere with the counsels or determinations of the state; but as the present subject of deliberation and measures is too pregnant with events not to run far into the future, we submissively hope, that the facts we have produced, and the deductions from them, if not in the present hour, may prove of some utility hereafter.

You, in your future deliberations, will separate the frivolous from the important, the specious and the plausible from the sound and the true. You, searching the depths of human nature, will not be misled by trite and popular opinion; and, when the force of self-interest is alleged at this momentous crisis, you will discover that interest is not the predominant ruler of mankind—I repeat, that interest is not the predominant ruler of mankind. The few, indeed, are under that frigid influence; but the many are governed by passion, whose train I need not arrange. Perseverance in acts of violence from one quarter, and perseverance in another to suffer, may be in both the result of passion. Passion can misinterpret words, give solidity to empty sounds, and convert shadow to substance. Passion could give weight to the cry of the Church, when Sacheverell infatuated a Nation, renowned above all others for solid sense and depth of thought.

To conclude: if, sir, in any future operation, this honourable House may condescend to a moment's remembrance of us, our appearance may prove not altogether in vain. Although there is still much remaining to offer, permit us now to withdraw, unreproved, we hope, by you; but surely so by our own conscientious feelings in thus attempting our discharge of a duty to the publick; over the Acts already passed and passing, I do not breathe out a word—only a parting sigh.

Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair.

Mr. Alderman Oliver reported from the Committee, that