Gov. Johnfione. while this government fubfifted there must be different parties, and that the minifter, merely becaufe he was minifter, must be oppofed. That he did not wifh it otherwise. He was afraid fuch oppofition was neceffary to fupply the want of public virtue: but that though fuch oppofition was to be expected in the ordinary courfe of parliamentary proceedings, there were fome cafes of much too ferious a nature to admit of it, and fuch he thought the prefent cafe to be. Governor Johnfione. The fpeech of the honourable baronet who fpoke laft is very much like that we have just heard from the throne, full of affumed falfe facts and general undifputed axioms, which the people in America are as ready to close with as their adverfaries on this fide. As for inftance, the honourable gentleman fays, "the Americans had some reasons for their conduct in the firft of those disputes; but now they have refufed their just proportion of taxes, by rejecting Lord North's conciliatory propofition of last year, and refifting the conftitutional authority of Parliament, he is ready to devote them to deftruction." Who does not fee that the whole queftion, even according to this honourable gentleman, turns upon juft proportion and conftitutional authority Now I deny that the people of America have ever refufed to contribute their juft proportion, when called upon in a conftitutional way, and thofe who affert the contrary ought to prove it. If the honourable gentleman vindicates the feverity of his conduct against his fellow fubjects in America, for rejecting the propofition of last year, which the noble Lord introduced about the middle of the feffion, I think he refts on as feeble ground as any man ever stood on. How does he vindicate the feverities in which he concurred before it could be known whether the fubjects in America would accede to this marvellous indulgence or not? His mind must have been ftrangely biaffed to the noble Lord, if this could turn the fcale of his reafon. I really thought this foolish piece of paper had been fo univerfally condemned, that I fhould never again have heard any arguments founded on fo flimfy a foundation. The purpose was clearly to amufe the people on this fide the Atlantick, and to divide the people on that. Having failed in its effect, I understood from many friends, of government, that every rational argument in fupport of the propofition had been reprobated for what, indeed, can be more truly ridiculous, than in a difpute concerning the power of taxation, ferioufly to fay to a fenfible people, we admit there are many unanfwerable reafons why this affem bly bly are unfit to impofe taxes upon you, and therefore, if you will only tax yourfelves to our fatisfaction, we will forbear the exercife of a right to which we declare by the propofition we are incompetent: but fome men will fay the Parliament can judge fufficiently well of the grofs fum, though unfit and uncapable of determining on the manner in which it is to be raifed. Who that is accuftomed to reafon accurately, does not perceive that the eftimate of fupply must be regulated from a thorough knowledge of the ways and means, and that they are united in common fenfe, as well as by the English conftitution, to refide in the fame perfons. But the honourable baronet forgets that the main argument which drew the conceffion of the conciliatory propofition turns on this: The Americans have no reprefentatives in the British Parliament; they have not the security of other fubjects refiding in Britain, who may not be reprefented, namely, that the members in taxing them muft tax themselves; on the contrary, it is the intereft of every member to lay as much as poffible on America to ease himself. This was the confideration which "drew iron tears from Pluto's cheek," and has affected fo many members not remarkably tender towards the feeling of their fellow-creature. But let us confider if this irrefiftible objection, as it has been called by one of the friends, of adminiftration, against taxing America by the British Parliament, does not equally apply, when we approve of the fum offered, and tax them in the lump, as when we tax them by detail. However, Sir, abfurd as this appears, it is not my capital objection to that mode of raifing money, nor is it the objection of the Americans; they maintain the power of giving and granting their own money by their own free and voluntary confent, is the only fecurity they can retain for the just adminiftration of government, at fo great a diftance from the feat of empire. That it is the main fpring in their feveral establishments upon which the meeting and power of their feveral affemblies depend, from whence the fingular profperity of the Britifh colonies, above all others on the face of the earth, have flowed. They admit you have the power of limitting the means, by which they may acquire property, but they deny you the power of difpofing of this property after it is fo acquired. Thus in his Majefty's fpeech the fame general undefined axioms prevail. To be a fubject of Great Britain, with all its confequences, is to be the freest member of any civil fociety in the known world." All America with one voice agree in this truth; their writings and their actions proclaim their belief: but they maintain, as I affert affert in their behalf, that one of the unalienable confequences of that fituation, is the giving and granting of aids for the fupport of government, according to the exigency that shall appear to their own understanding: and that to tax them in an affembly where they have no reprefentatives, and by men who have no intereft in the fubfidy they impofe, is contrary. to the spirit of the British conftitution, and in its confequences muft deprive them of all the effential rights of a British fubject. Another effential right of a British subject is trial by jury; has not this been abrogated in many cafes by the late acts of Parlament, and totally deftroyed in all civil causes in the extenfive province of Quebeck? The writ of habeas corpus is another effential right of a British subject; has not this also been done away? I forbear to enumerate the other oppreffive proceedings, contrary to the whole tenor of our government, diffolving of charters without evidence, trial, or forfeiture; laws to deny the natural gifts of the elements, confounding the innocent with the guilty; because when once the three great pillars of the British conftitution are removed, taxing without reprefentatives, trial without jury, imprisonment without relief by writ of habeas corpus, the whole muft neceffarily fall into confufion, and the reft is not worth contending for. The people in America wifely foresee the fuppreffion of all their rights, in the train of thofe iniquitous innovations. They perceive that every thing which is dear to a freeman is at stake, and they are willing, as becomes the children of their ancestors, to put all to the rifque, and facrifice their lives and fortunes, rather than give up the liberty of a fubject of Great Britain, with all its confequences. The honourable baronet has concluded his fpeech with another reafon for inducing us to join in the coercive meafures propofed by the addrefs, which is ftill more extraordinary, faying, "Whether we fucceed or not may be uncertain; but if we fail, we fhall even then be no worse than we were." These are the very words of the noble Lord on the treasury bench laft year. I am perfuaded the worthy baronet has words of his own fo much at will, that he borrows from no man; but I am more furprised he can fanctify fuch opinions by his voice. If America is forced to invite foreign powers to fhare in her commerce; if fhe is drove to the neceffity of following the example of Holland and Switzerland; if our armies are deftroyed, our fleets wrecked, our treasures wafted, our reputation for juftice and humanity loft, our fenates corrupted by the emoluments which muft fall to indi viduals viduals, in the profecution of fo expenfive a war, and four fhillings land-tax entailed on us for ever, will the honourable gentleman fay we are only where we were? What objects can call the attention of the Houfe in a ftronger degree than thole I have enumerated? and yet they are all involved in the question now before you, if you reject the amendment propofed. I fay, it is unfair in adminiftration, and an affront to every individual member of the Houle, to call upon them without any information laid on your table, without evidence brought to your bar, deftitute of every ma erial by which a rational creature can refolve, to require he fhould give his unlimited fanction to meafures of fuch moment, on the very firft day (perhaps) of his arrival in town. The reafon is obvious to me." The minifter clearly perceives, if men were acquainted with the real ftate of things in Ame rica; if they had time to acquire information, to reason and reflect, that all men of generous feelings would leave him, and even his moft desperate followers might be fhaken : men are to be brought to this black bufinefs hood-winked; they are to be drawn in by degrees, till they cannot retreat. On the one hand, a dutiful addrefs to his Majefty, full of thote general atfurances of loyalty and respect becoming fubjects to the first magiftrate, is offered to your determination on the other, a hafty approbation of meafures you have had no time to confider, from men you have every reafon to fufpect, lies before you. Is there a man who feels the dignity of his fituation, that can hesitate in his choice upon fuch an alternative? I shall now expofe to the House the falfe facts which are affumed in his Majefty's fpeech, as compofed by the minifter. First, the minifter tells you he has called you early together. This I deny. The commencement of open hoftilities was in April, the battle of Bunker's-hill in June, and the petition from the congrefs in July; they feverally arrived in England within five or fix weeks after the events. Now I maintain, as a member of Parliament intrufted with a voice in the fupreme authority of the empire, that I am called late to deliberate in the national council on fuch great events. The next notorious untruth is, that the Americans are collecting a naval force. The third affertion, that the Americans meant only to amuse by vague expreffions of attachment to the parent ftate, is equally injurious to their honour and to truth. This can only be inferted as an excule for the bad conduct of administration and their ill fuccefs. The Americans told you in language the moft direct and fimple, again and again reVOL. III. D eated, peated, that they would refift to the last appeal thofe arbitrary innovations: but you affected not to believe them; neverthelefs, I maintain, the armaments were calculated to refift men in arms, and the infufficiency arofe from a total ignorance of the force, character and difpofitions of the people in America, as well as a mifconception upon the effect the feveral retraining bills paffed laft feffions would produce in fhort, from a perfect ignorance of the operations of cruelty and oppreffion on high minded men, acting under the spirit of freedom. All their knowledge feems to have been drawn from one fource, that of Governor Hutchinfon. The civil war now raging in America feems, ftep by step, to have been carried on by his advice. Whoever reads his letters, lately published in America, fees every measure pursued by adminiftration to have been antecedently pointed out by this gentleman in his confidential correfpondence, until his fentiments feem dictated at laft more by revenge and difappointment than any other principle: what confidence fhould be placed in the advice of a man who has declared in the cool inoments of committing his reflections to paper, that every Machiavelian policy is now to be vindicated towards the people in America? I am here fuppofing the letters in my hand to be genuine, and there is little reafon to doubt their authenticity, as they remain uncontradicted. It matters not to me, as a judge, how they were procured. The only queftion refpecting my opinion on the conduct of Mr. Hutchinfon at present is, are the letters genuine or not? For in this I always differed from the lords of the council, who determined on the complaint of the province of New England againft Governer Hutchinson, on the former letters they difcovered. The Lords of the Council laid the whole ftrefs on the manner in which the letters had been obtained. No man could admire the abilities of the advocate more than I did on that occafion; it was his bufinefs to inflame the paffions, to cover the turpitude of Governor Hutchinson's conduct, under crimes of a greater dye : but it was shameful in the judges to be led away, it was unworthy the difcrimination fo neceffary to that character, to mingle the manner of obtaining the letters with the fact they were brought to prove. I fhall fuppofe the letters had been obtained as infamoufly as the Effay on Woman, and more infamoufly it is impoffible; yet my judgment on the conduct of a governor writing to men in high authority, on the political affairs of his province, and concluding as his advice, that the liberty of British fubjects must be abridged, would |