for raising the necessary supplies, different from those which have hitherto been used. Dividing the kingdom into a certain number of parts, which should severally vote subsidies to the crown, or even distinct assessments to be made by the different counties into which England is now divided, might, in the circumstances we suppose, be looked upon as advisable expedients; and these being once introduced, might be continued.

Another division of the right of the people, much more likely to take place than those just mentioned, might be such as might arise from acquisitions of foreign dominions, the inhabitants of which should in time claim and obtain a right to treat directly with the crown, and grant supplies to it, without the interference of the British legislature.

Should any colonies acquire the right we mention, should, for instance, the American colonies have acquired, as they claimed it,-it is not to be doubted that the consequences which have resulted from a division like that we mentioned in most of the kingdoms of Europe, would also have taken place in the British dominions, and that the spirit of competition, above described, would in time have manifested itself between the different colonies. This desire of ingratiating themselves with the crown, by means of the privilege of granting supplies to it, was even openly confessed by an agent of the American provinces,* when, on his being ex

* Dr. Franklin.

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amined by the house of commons, in the year 1766, he said, "the granting aids to the crown is the only means the Americans have of recommend"ing themselves to their sovereign." And the events that have of late years taken place in America, render it evident that the colonies would not have scrupled going any lengths to obtain favourable conditions at the expense of Britain and the British legislature.

That a similar spirit of competition might be raised in Ireland, is also sufficiently plain from certain late events. And should the American colonies have obtained their demands,—and at the same time should Ireland and America have increased in wealth to a certain degree,-the time might have come at which the crown might have governed England with the supplies of Ireland and America-Ireland with the supplies of England and of the American colonies-and the American colonies with the money of each other, and of England and Ireland.

To this it may be objected, that the supplies granted by the colonies, even though joined with those of Ireland, never could have risen to such a height as to have counterbalanced the importance of the English commons.-I answer, in the first place, that there would have been no necessity that the aids granted by Ireland and America should have risen to an equality with those granted by the British parliament: it would have been sufficient to produce the effects we mention, that

they had only borne a certain proportion to the latter, so far as to have conferred on the crown a certain degree of independence, and at the same time have raised in the English commons a correspondent sense of self-diffidence in the exercise of their undoubted privilege of granting, or rather refusing, subsidies to the crown.-Here it must be remembered, that the right of granting or refusing supplies to the crown is the only ultimate forcible privilege possessed by the British parliament: by the constitution it has no other, as has been observed in the beginning of this chapter. This circumstance ought to be combined with the exclusive possession of the executive powers lodged in the crown-with its prerogative of dissenting from the bills framed by parliament, and even of dissolving it.*

* Being with Doctor Franklin at his house in Craven-street, some months before he went back to America, I mentioned to him a few of the remarks contained in this chapter, and, in general, that the claim of the American colonies directly clashed with one of the vital principles of the English constitution. The observation, I remember, struck him very much : it led him afterwards to speak to me of the examination he had undergone in the house of commons; and he concluded with lending me that volume of the Collection of Parliamentary Debates, in which an account of it is contained. Finding the constitutional tendency of the claim of the Americans to be a subject not very generally understood, I added a few paragraphs concerning it in the English edition I some time after gave of this work; and on publishing a third edition of the same, I thought it might not be amiss to write something more compact on the subject, and accordingly added the pre

I shall mention, in the second place, a remarkable fact in regard to this subject (which may serve to show that politicians are not always consistent, or even sagacious in their arguments); which is, that the same persons who were the most strenuous advocates for granting to the American colonies their demands, were likewise the most sanguine in their predictions of the future wealth and greatness of America; and at the same time also used to make frequent complaints of the undue influence which the crown derives from the scanty supplies granted to it by the kingdom of Ireland.*

Had the American colonies fully obtained their demands, both the essence of the present English government, and the condition of the English people, would certainly have been altered thereby: nor would such a change have been inconsiderable, but in proportion as the colonies should have remained in a state of national poverty.t

sent new chapter, into which I transferred the few additional paragraphs I mention, leaving in the place where they stood (page 45), only the general observations on the right of granting subsidies, which were formerly in the French work. Several of the ideas, and even expressions contained in this chapter, made their appearance in the Public Advertiser, about the time I was preparing the first edition: I sent them myself to that newspaper, under the signature of Advena.

*For instance, the complaints made in regard to the pensions on the Irish establishment.

+ When I observe that no man who wished for the preservation of the form and spirit of the English constitution ought to have desired that the claim of the American colonies might

CHAPTER XXI.

Conclusion.-A few Words on the Nature of the Divisions that take place in England.

I SHALL conclude this work with a few obser

vations on the total freedom from violence with which the political disputes and contentions in

be granted to them, I mean not to say that the American colonies should have given up their claim. The wisdom of ministers, in regard to American affairs, ought to have been constantly employed in making the colonies useful to this country, and at the same time in hiding their subjection from them (a caution, which is, after all, more or less used in every government upon earth); it ought to have been exerted in preventing the opposite interests of Britain, and of America, from being brought to an issue,—to any such clashing dilemma as would render disobedience on the one hand, and the resort to force on the other, almost unavoidable. The generality of the people fancy that ministers use a great depth of thought and much forecast in their operations; whereas the truth is, that ministers, in all countries, never think but of providing for present, immediate contingencies; in doing which they constantly follow the open track before them. This method does very well for the common course of human affairs, and even is the safest; but whenever cases and circumstances of a new and unknown nature occur, sad blunders and uproar are the consequences. The celebrated count Oxenstiern, chancellor of Sweden, one pay when his son was expressing to him his diffidence of his own abilities, and the dread with which he thought of ever engaging in the management of public affairs, made the following Latin answer to aim; Nescis, mi fili, quam parvá cum sapientiâ regitur mundus