Feb.

CHAP. ance by arms against usurpation and lawless violence, XXI. is not rebellion by the law of God or the land. Re1775. sistance to lawful authority makes rebellion. Hampden, Russell, Sydney, Holt, Somers, Tillotson, were no rebels. If an act of parliament is null and void, it is lawful to resist it.

"This people under great trials and dangers, have discovered great abilities and virtues, and that nothing is so terrible to them as the loss of their liberties. They act for America and posterity. If there is no possible medium between absolute independence and subjection to the authority of parliament, all North America are convinced of their independence, and determined to defend it at all hazards."

CHAPTER XXII.

HAS NEW ENGLAND A RIGHT IN THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES?

FEBRUARY, 1775.

XXII.

Feb.

On the tenth of February, after the speaker reported CHAP. to the house of commons the answer to their address, Lord North presented a message from the king, ask- 1775. ing the required "augmentation to his forces." The minister, who still clung to the hope of reducing Massachusetts by the terrors of legislation, next proposed to restrain the commerce of New England and exclude its fishermen from the Banks of Newfoundland. The best shipbuilders in the world were at Boston, and their yards had been closed; the New England fishermen were now to be restrained from a toil in which they excelled the world. Thus the joint right to the fisheries was made a part of the great American struggle.

"God and nature," said Johnston, "have given that fishery to New England and not to Old." Dunning defended the right of the Americans to fish on the Banks. "If rebellion is resistance to government," said Sir George Savile, "it must sometimes be

Feb.

CHAP. justifiable. May not a people, taxed without their XXII. consent, and their petitions against such taxation re1775. jected, their charters taken away without hearing, and an army let loose upon them without a possibility of obtaining justice, be said to be in justifiable rebellion?" But the ministerial measure, which, by keeping the New England fishermen at home provoked discontent and provided recruits for an insurgent army, was carried through all its stages by great majorities. Bishop Newton, in the lords, reasoned "that rebellion is the sin of witchcraft, and that one so unnatural as that of New England, could be ascribed to nothing less than diabolical infatuation."

The minister of France took the occasion to request the most rigorous and precise orders to all British naval officers not to annoy the commerce of the French colonies. "Such orders," answered Rochford, "have been given; and we have the greatest desire to live with you on the best understanding and the most perfect friendship." A letter from Lord Stormont, the British ambassador at Paris, was also cited in the house of lords to prove that France equally wished a continuance of peace. "It signifies nothing," said Richmond; "you can put no trust in Gallic faith, except so long as it shall be their interest to keep their word." With this Rochford, the secretary of state, readily agreed; proving, however, from Raynal's History of the two Indies, that it was not for the interest of France that the English colonies should throw off the yoke. The next courier took to the king of France the report, that neither the opposition nor the British minister put faith in his sincerity; and the inference seemed justified that they themselves were insincere.

XXII.

Feb.

The English mind was in the process of change. CHAP. The destruction of the tea at Boston had been condemned as a lawless riot, for which the pride of the 1775. nation demanded an indemnity. But the proposal to enter upon a civil war with a view to enforce for parlia ment a power of taxation which it could never render effective, or a mutilation of a charter to which the public was indifferent, was received by merchants, tradesmen, and the majority of the people with abhorrence. Lord North himself leaned far towards the Americans, and would gladly have escaped from his embarrassments by concession or resigning office; but George the Third, who liked his pliant minister too well to give him up, yielded just enough to his advice to retain him in his place and yet to baffle his design. "I am a friend to holding out the olive branch," wrote the king, "yet I believe that when once vigorous measures appear to be the only means, the colonies will submit. I shall never look to the right or to the left, but steadily pursue that track which my conscience dictates to be the right one." The preparations for war were, therefore, to proceed; but he consented, that the commanders of the naval and military forces might be invested with commissions for the restoration of peace according to a measure to be proposed by Lord North. From Franklin, whose aid in the scheme was earnestly desired, the minister once more sought to learn the least amount of concession that could be accepted.

No sooner was Franklin consulted, than he expressed his approbation of the proposed commission, and of Lord Howe as one of its members; and to smooth the way to conciliation, he offered at once the

CHAP. payment of an indemnity to the India company, proXXII. vided the Massachusetts acts should be repealed. 1775. "Without the entire repeal," said he, "the language of the proposal is, try on your fetters first, and then

Feb.

if

you don't like them, we will consider." On the eighteenth of February, Franklin, by appointment, once more saw Lord Howe. "Consent," said he, "to accompany me, and co-operate with me in the great work of reconciliation:" and he coupled his request with a promise of ample appointments and subsequent rewards. "Accepting favors," said the American, "would destroy the influence you propose to use; but let me see the propositions, and if I approve of them, I will hold myself ready to accompany you at an hour's warning." His opinions, which he had purposely reduced to writing and signed with his own hand, were communicated to Lord Howe, and through him to Lord North, as his last words; and they were these: "The Massachusetts must suffer all the hazards and mischiefs of war, rather than admit the alteration of their charter and laws by parliament. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

The minister was disheartened; he stood almost alone, helpless for the want of a vigorous will, dreading the conflict with America, yet feebly and vainly resisting the impetuosity of his colleagues. Franklin was informed on the twentieth, that his principles and those of parliament were as yet too wide from each other for discussion; and on the same day, Lord North, armed with the king's consent in writing, proposed in the house of commons a plan of con