ence, or a mischievous theory; whether you choose to build on imagination, or fact; whether you prefer enjoyment, or hope; satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent?

If these propositions are accepted, every thing which has been made to enforce a contrary system, must, I take it for granted, fall along with it. On that ground, I have drawn the following Resolution, which, when it comes to be moved, will, naturally, be divided, in a proper manner: "That it may be proper to repeal an Act, made in the seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, entituled, 'An Act for granting certain Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America; for allowing a drawback of the Duties of Customs upon the exportation from this Kingdom of Coffee and Cocoa Nuts, of the produce of the said Colonies or Plantations; for discontinuing the draw-backs payable on China Earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually preventing the clandestine running of Goods in the said Colonies and Plantations.'—And that it may be proper to repeal an Act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entituled, 'An Act to discontinue, in such manner, and for such time, as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of Goods, Wares and Merchandise, at the Town and within the Harbour of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America.' And that it may be proper to repeal an Act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entituled, 'An Act for the impartial administration of Justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any acts done by them, in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of Riots and Tumults in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England.' And that it may be proper to repeal an Act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entituled, 'An Act for the better regulating the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England.' And, also, that it may be properto explain and amend an Act, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, entituled,' An Act for the trial of Treasons committed out of the King's Dominions.'"

I wish, sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because (independently of the dangerous precedent of suspending the rights of the subject during the King's pleasure) it was passed, I apprehend, with less regularity, and on more partial principles, than it ought. The Corporation of Boston was not heard before it was condemned. Other Towns, full as guilty as she was, have not had their Ports blocked up. Even the Restraining Bill of the present session does not go the length of the Boston Port Act. The same ideas of prudence, which induced you not to extend equal punishment to equal guilt, even when you were punishing, induce me, who mean not to chastise, but to reconcile, to be satisfied with the punishment already partially inflicted.

Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circumstances, prevent you from taking away the Charters of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, as you have taken away that of Massachusetts Colony, though the Crown has far less power in the two former Provinces than it enjoyed in the latter; and though the abuses have been full as great and as flagrant in the exempted as in the punished. The same reasons of prudence and accommodation have weight with me in restoring the Charter of Massachusetts Bay. Besides, sir, the Act which changes the Charter of Massachusetts is, in many particulars, so exceptionable, that if I did not wish absolutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter it; as several of its provisions tend to the subversion of all publick and private justice. Such, among others, is the power in the Governour to change the Sheriff at his pleasure, and to make a new Returning Officer for every special cause. It is shameful to behold such a regulation standing among English laws.

The Act for bringing persons, accused of committing Murder, under the orders of Government to England for trial, is but temporary. That Act has calculated the probable duration of our quarrel with the Colonies, and is accommodated to that supposed duration. I would hasten the happy moment of reconciliation; and, therefore, must, on my principle, get rid of that most justly obnoxious Act.

The Act of Henry the Eighth for the trial of treasons, I do not mean to take away, but to confine it to its proper bounds and original intention; to make it expressly for trial of treasons (and the greatest treasons may be committed) in places where the jurisdiction of the Crown does not extend.

Having guarded the privileges of local Legislature, I would next secure to the Colonies a fair and unbiased judicature: for which purpose, sir, I propose the following Resolution: "That, from the time when the General Assembly or General Court of any Colony or Plantation in North America, shall have appointed, by Act of Assembly, duly confirmed, a settled salary to the offices of the Chief Justice and other Judges of the Superiour Court, it may be proper, that the said Chief Justice and other Judges of the Superiour Courts of such Colony, shall hold his and their office and offices during their good behaviour; and shall not be removed therefrom, but when the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in Council, upon a hearing on complaint from the General Assembly, or on a complaint from the Governour or Council, or the House of Representatives severally, of the Colony in which the said Chief Justice and other Judges have exercised the said offices."

The next Resolution relates to the Courts of Admiralty. It is this: "That it may be proper to regulate the Courts of Admiralty or Vice-Admiralty, authorized by the 15th chapter of the fourth of George the Third, in such a manner as to make the same more commodious to those who' sue or are sued, in the said Courts, and to provide for the more decent maintenance of the Judges in the same."

These Courts I do not wish to take away; they are, in themselves, proper establishments. This Court is one of the capital securities of the Act of Navigation. The extent of its jurisdiction, indeed, has been increased; but this is altogether as proper, and is, indeed, on many accounts, more eligible, where new powers were wanted, than a. Court absolutely new. But Courts incommodiously situated, in effect, deny justice; and a Court, partaking in the fruits of its own condemnation, is a robber. The Congress complain, and complain justly of this grievance.*

These are the three consequential propositions. I have thought of two or three more; but they came rather too near detail, and to the province of Executive Government, which I wish Parliament always to superintend, never to assume. If the first six are granted, congruity will carry the latter three. If not, the things that remain unrepealed will be, I hope, rather unseemly encumbrances on the building, than very materially detrimental to its strength and stability.

Here, sir, I should close, but that I plainly perceive some objections remain which I ought, if possible, to remove. The first will be, that in resorting to the doctrine of our ancestors, as contained in the preamble to the Chester Act, I prove too much; that the grievance, from a want of rev presentation stated in that preamble, goes to the whole of Legislation as well as to Taxation. And that the Colonies, grounding themselves upon that doctrine,' will apply it to all parts of Legislative authority.

To this objection, with all possible deference and humility, and wishing as little as any man living to impair the smallest particle of our supreme authority, I answer that the words are the words of Parliament and not mine; and that all false and inconclusive inferences drawn from them are not mine, for I heartily disclaim any such inference. I have chosen the words of an Act of Parliament, which Mr. Grenville, surely a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate for the sovereignty of Parliament, formerly moved to have read at your table, in confirmation of his tenets. It is true that Lord Chatham considered these preambles as declaring strongly in favour of his opinions. He was a no less powerful advocate for the privileges of the Americans. Ought I not from hence to presume that these preambles are as favourable as possible to both, when properly understood; favourable both to the rights of Parliament and to the privilege of the dependencies of this Crown? But, sir, the object of grievance in my Resolution I have not taken from the Chester but from the Durham Act, which confines the hardship of want of representation to the case of Subsidies, and which, therefore, falls in, exactly, with the case of the Colonies. But, whether the unrepresented Counties were de jure or de facto bound,

* The Solicitor General informed Mr. Burke, when the. Resolutions were separately moved, that the grievance of the Judges partaking of the profits of the seizure had been redressed by office; accordingly the Resolution was amended.