to consider further of the Petition of the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of London, concerned in the Commerce of North America, and of the several other Petitions referred to the consideration of the said Committee.

Ordered, That Mr. Burke have leave to make a motion, it being one of the clock on Tuesday morning.

And he moved the House accordingly.

Ordered, That there be laid before this House an Account of the quantity and value of the Silk, Cotton, Worsted, Linen, and Mixed Hose, of English Manufacture, exported to North America and the West Indies, since Christmas, 1772; distinguishing each year, as far as the same can be made up.

MONDAY, March 27, 1775.

The Order of the Day being read;

Resolved, That this House will, upon this day seven-night, resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House, to consider further of the Petition of the Merchants, Traders, and others, of the City of London, concerned in the Commerce of North America, and of the several other Petitions referred to the said Committee.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

WEDNESDAY, March 22, 1775.

Mr. Burke arose, and addressed the House as follows:

I hope, sir, that notwithstanding the austerity of the Chair, your good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence towards human frailty. You will not think it unnatural, that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of anxiety about the event of my motion, I found to my infinite surprise, that the grand Penal Bill, by which we had passed sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is to be returned to us from the other House.* I do confess I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. I look upon it as a sort of Providential favour, by which we are put once more in possession of our deliberative capacity, upon a business so very questionable in its nature, so very uncertain in its issue. By the return of this Bill, which seemed to have taken its flight forever, we are at this very instant nearly as free to choose a plan for our American Government, as we were on the first day of the session. If, sir, we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all embarrassed (unless we please to make ourselves so) by any incongruous mixture of coercion and restraint. We are, therefore, called upon, as it were by a superiour warning voice, again to attend to America; to attend to the whole of it together, and to review the subject with an unusual degree of care and calmness.

Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none so on this side of the grave. When I first had the honour of a seat in this House, the affairs of that Continent pressed themselves upon us, as the most important and most delicate object of Parliamentary attention. My little share in this great deliberation oppressed me. I found myself ,a partaker in a very high trust; and, having no sort of reason to rely on the strength of my natural abilities for the proper execution of that trust, I was obliged to take more than common pains to instruct myself in every thing which relates to our Colonies. I was not less under the necessity of forming some fixed ideas concerning the general policy of the British Empire. Something of this sort seemed to be indispensable, in order, amidst so vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to concentre my thoughts; to ballast ray conduct; to preserve me from being blown about by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did not think it safe or manly to have fresh principles to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive from America.

At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect concurrence with a large majority in this House. Bowing under that high authority and penetrated with the sharpness and strength of that early impression, I have continued ever since, without the least deviation in my original sentiments. Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance in errour, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge.

Sir, Parliament having an enlarged view of objects, made, during this interval, more frequent changes in their sentiments and their conduct, than could be justified in a particular person, upon the contracted scale of private in formation. But, though I do not hazard any thing approaching to a censure, on the motives of former Parliaments to all those alterations, one fact is undoubted, that under them the state of America has been kept in continual agitation. Every thing administered as remedy to the publick complaint, if it did not produce, was at least followed by an heightening of the distemper, until, by a variety of experiments, that important country has been brought into her present situation—a situation which I will not miscall, which I dare not name, which I scarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any description.

In this posture, sir, things stood at the beginning of the session. About that time, a worthy Member (Mr. Rose Fuller) of great Parliamentary experience, who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of the American Committee with much ability, took me aside, and, lamenting the present aspect of our politicks, told me things were come to such a pass, that our former methods of proceeding in the House would be no longer tolerated; that the publick tribunal (never too indulgent to a long and unsuccessful opposition) would now scrutinize our conduct with unusual severity; that the very vicissitudes and shiftings of Ministerial measures, instead of convicting their authors of in constancy and want of system, would be taken as an occasion of charging us with a predetermined discontent, which nothing could satisfy; whilst we accused every measure of vigour as cruel, and every proposal of lenity as weak and irresolute. The publick, he said, would not have patience to see us play the game out with our adversaries; we must produce our hand. It would be expected, that those who, for many years, had been active in such affairs, should shew that they had formed some clear and decided idea of the principles of Colony Government, and were capable of drawing out something like a platform of the ground, which might be laid for future and permanent tranquillity.

I felt the truth of what my honourable friend represented; but I felt my situation too. His application might have been made with far greater propriety to many other gentlemen. No man was, indeed, ever better disposed, or worse qualified for such an undertaking, than myself. Though I gave so far into his opinion, that I immediately threw my thoughts into a sort of Parliamentary form, I was by no means equally ready to produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, to hazard plans of Government, except from a seat of authority. Propositions are made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably, when the minds of men are not properly disposed for their reception; and for my part I am not ambitious of ridicule; not absolutely a candidate for disgrace.

Besides, sir, to speak the plain truth, I have, in general, no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government; nor of any politicks, in which the plan is to be wholly separated from the execution. But when I saw that anger and violence prevailed every day more and more; and that things were hastening towards an incurable alienation of our Colonies, I confess my caution gave way. I felt this as one of those few moments in which decorum yields to an higher duty. Publick calamity is a mighty leveller; and there are occasions when any, even the slightest, chance of doing good, must be laid hold on, even by the most inconsiderable person.

To restore order and repose to an Empire so great and so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest understanding. Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by

* The Act to restrain the Trade and Commerce of the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New-Hampshire, and Colonies of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantation, in North America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands in the West Indies; and to prohibit such Provinces and Colonies from carrying on any Fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, and other places therein mentioned, under certain conditions and limitations.