for, not against them. So it would have been in the case of the artillery, ammunition, &c. I remember well that the transports during the late war were armed; and I appeal to the noble Earl, though the naval force serving on the American station is in a proportion of nearly three to one to what it was last year, that, not contented with this increased protection there, as well as convoys from hence, whether his Lordship has not taken care likewise that no transports are permitted to sail to America until they are first put in a state of defence against the American cruisers. This the noble Lord has gained by experience. Happy for both countries, perhaps, if this method had been adopted earlier.

The question was then put, and it was resolved in the negative. Contents 27; Non-contents 64.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Friday, May 10, 1776.

Mr. Sawbridge [Lord-Mayor of London] moved, “That his Majesty’s Colonies in America be continued upon the same footing of giving and granting their money, as his Majesty’s subjects in Ireland are, by their own Representatives.”

He said, there was no necessity for going into a long discussion of the state of America, or the consequences which might be expected from our obstinately persisting to coerce them, which, he ventured to foretell, we should never be able to effect. Powerful as those motives might appear to persons who measured right only by the probable success of effecting wrong; the equity and justice of the English nation, he hoped, would be called forth by reasons of a different nature. He trusted that sentiment would effect what nothing but short-sighted interest could obstruct; and that every part of this wide-extended empire would experience the happy consequences of a mild, free, and benign Government. He condemned the conduct of Administration in strong terms. He urged them either to accept of preliminaries for peace with America, from the wisdom and industry of individuals in the legislature, out of office, or to substitute other preliminaries of their own framing, which should be more just and salutary. He believed, that even the sanguine a betters of Government now gave up all thoughts of exacting a revenue from British America without a Parliamentary representation. His constituents had recommended to him this proposition; it coincided with his own sentiments; and it was therefore with the utmost satisfaction he stood up to acquit himself of the first duty of a delegate in Parliament, the conveying the wishes of those by whose suffrages he had been deputed.

Mr. Alderman Oliver seconded the motion, and said, if the present opportunity of conciliating our disputes with America was neglected, we should never have another. He recommended coming to some resolution which might convince the people of that country that we did not mean to make slaves of them, but hold them as peaceful, useful, and obedient subjects.

Mr. Vyner (the Lord-Mayor having said something relative to the country gentlemen giving sixteen shillings in the pound, if required, in a tax upon their lands, to continue the present civil war) confirmed the offer, as originating from himself in that House; and added, he was not for offering any conditions for peace while an American had a musket on his shoulder.

Hon. Temple Luttrell. He paid many compliments to Mr. Sawbridge on the goodness of his motives for the part he now took; but was of opinion, such esteem had he for the right honourable magistrate’s disposition and talents, that, if he was to form a Constitution for the Colonies to satisfy his own mind, he would have their interests and happiness better provided for than by giving them a Constitution on the model of that of Ireland. A people so wretched, so oppressed, were scarcely to be found in any civilized part of the globe; nor could a more substantial injury, or a more humiliating insult, be offered by a paramount nation to one of its dependencies, than what Ireland would experience at the hands of a British Ministry within forty-eight hours, if his information proved authentick. An English Minister had abused the confidence of his royal master so far as to prevail with him, in his character of King of Ireland, to create hereditary legislators for that Island from the clans of the mountains of Scotland; men who, in their private characters, he believed to be not only irreproachable, but amiable and praiseworthy, of authority and high descent amidst their own thaneships; yet whose publick pretensions in the years 1715 and 1745, (for he never heard of any other,) now construed loyalty, were still, in the eye of our Constitution, acts of infamy and rebellion. He should be told, perhaps, that this power was a part of the rightful prerogative of the Crown; an idea to which he could never subscribe, while he remembered the wise and sterling definition of prerogative given us by Mr. Locke, who says, it is “a discretionary power of acting for the publick good, where the positive laws are silent; if that discretionary power be abused to the publick detriment, such prerogative is exerted in an unconstitutional manner.” Was this acting for the publick good? To bestow those privileges and pre-eminences which are attached to the peerage of a kingdom, on persons whose, names and families are utterly unknown to the natives of such kingdom, and without any ties of property, of local services, or affection?—Barons, whose blood having been tainted by an open violation of the laws of their own country, are, in preference to the best gentlemen of Ireland, sent over there to possess the most honourable seats in the Senate; to enact publick statutes; and adjudge upon personal inheritances in the dernier resort. Mr. Luttrell called, with some warmth, upon Government to act in a manner consistent with the responsibility of their stations, and not to persist in a contemptuous silence on so important an occasion, and at such a critical juncture. The lives of their countrymen, the lives, perhaps, of their dearest friends, the safety of the empire, depended upon their immediate resolves. Are our Ministers bent on war without a possible termination? —or on what issue would they wish to rest the conflict between the two nations? Would they choose the full extent of the field against a peopled continent of that immense magnitude?—or rather, offer to contract their battle, as was done by our Edward III, in the French wars, to a few scores of select warriors; and they themselves in person demand the lists against an equal number of the American Congress? Perhaps, upon maturer consideration, they had best decide the superiority in the same manner that the natives of Rome did against the Albans; for if even two of the Ministerial champions should fall before one of their three antagonists, there may still be left a third, (I have him in my eye,) who, when it comes to a running fight, shall out-victory the last of the Horatii. It might, probably, in a few days, be recommended to both Houses, in a certain speech, to be fabricated by the authors of a like sanguinary parole at the opening of the present session, to go down into their respective counties for the summer months, and inculcate harmony and good order. For his part, he now declared that he should consider acquiescence and quietude in future, under the present measures of a most infernal Administration, as unworthy a British soul in every class of society, and highly criminal; confessed himself to blame, with others in the minority, for too inactive a submission and tameness during the Parliamentary business of the winter; and was convinced, that if it had not been for the inertness, the want of unanimity, and reciprocal confidence on the side of Opposition, the Americans would not have experienced so many instances of continued daring and outrage at the hands of Government. He was severe upon the American Secretary, [Lord G. Germaine,] assuring him that now was the time to do real service to his country, and satisfy his German confederates, by avoiding a combat. It was a saying of one of the seven sages of Greece, (Thales of Miletus,) that of all wild beasts the worst was a tyrant, and of all the tame ones, a flatterer. Now, sir, when you cast your eyes on his Majesty’s efficient Ministers, when you look at his domestick minions, do you not heartily join with us in wishing that he may soon, like another Orpheus, play up a second dance in the midst of this mischievous menagerie, so as to send them scampering from the rich pastures of a Court to their native tramontane fastnesses? He called upon the Treasury to reply, and blamed their silence.

Right Hon. R. Rigby. He said he would not be one of those persons among the advocates for war, who kept profound silence when they were thus called upon. He should, therefore, till the Colonists submitted, acquit himself of his duty, by openly avowing a firm perseverance in the same hostile measures which he had supported from the beginning

*