the treasury pleases with three millions of free men. Lord Camden, in the Lords, divine - but

them have done me the honour to ask my opinion before they would engage. These will do me the justice to own, I advised them to engage; but notwithstanding - I love to be explicit - I cannot give them my confidence: pardon me, gentlemen, (bowing to the ministry) confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom; youth is the season of credulity; by comparing events with each other, reasoning from effects to causes, methinks I plainly discover the traces of an over-ruling influence.

"There is a clause in the Act of Settlement, to oblige every minister to sign his name to the advice which he gives to his Sovereign. Would it were observed! I have had the honour to serve the Crown, and if I could have submitted to influence, I might have still continued to serve; but I would not be responsible for others. I have no local attachments: it is indifferent to me, whether a man was rocked in his cradle on this side or that side of the Tweed. I sought for merit whereever it was to be found. It is my boast, that I was the first minister who looked for it; and I found it, in the mountains of the north. I called it forth, and drew into your service, an hardy and intrepid race of men ; men, who, when left by your jealousy, became a prey to the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh to have overturned the state, in the war before the last. These men, in the last war, were brought to combat on your side: they served with fidelity, as they fought with valour, and conquered for you in every part of the world: detested be the national reflections against them! they are unjust, groundless,'illiberal, unmanly. When I ceased to serve his Majesty as a minister, it was not the country of the man by which I was moved, but the man of that country wanted wisdom, and held principles incompatible with freedom.

"It is a long time, Mr. Speaker, since I have attended in parliament. When the resolution was taken in this House to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to have been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of my mind for the consequences, I would have solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne my testimony against it. It is now an act that has passed. I would speak with decency of every act of this House; but I must beg the indulgence of the House to speak of it with freedom.

"I hope a day may be soon appointed to consider the state of the nation, with respect to America. I hope gentlemen will come to this debate with all the temper and impartiality that his Majesty recommends, and the importance of the subject requires,-a subject of greater

one voice about him. They divided; we did not. Five Lords the division, Camden, Shelburne, Paulet, Cornwallis, Torrington.

importance than ever engaged the attention of this House; that subject only excepted, when, nearly a century ago, it was the question, whether you yourselves were to be bound or free? In the mean time, as, I cannot depend upon my health for any future day, such is the nature of my infirmities, I will beg to say a-few words at present, leaving the justice, the equity, the policy, the expediency of the act to another time. I will only speak to one point, a point which seems not to have been generally understood; I mean to the right. Some gentlemen (alluding to Mr. Nugent) seem to have considered it as a point of honour. If gentlemen consider it in that light, they leave all measures of right and wrong, to follow a delusion that may lead to destruction. It is my opinion, that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies. At the same time, I assert the authority of this kingdom over the colonies to be sovereign and supreme, in every circumstance of government and legislation whatsoever. They are the subjects of this kingdom, equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind, and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen: equally bound by its laws, and equally participating of the constitution of this free country. The Americans are the sons, not the bastards of England. Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power. The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone. In legislation, the three estates of the realm are alike concerned ; but the concurrence of the Peers and the Crown to a tax, is only necessary to close with the form of a law. The gift and grant is of the Commons alone. In ancient days, the Crown, the Barons, and the Clergy, possessed the lands. In those days, the Barons and the Clergy gave and granted to the Crown. They gave and granted what was their own. At present, since the discovery of America, and other circumstances permitting, the Commons are become the proprietors of the land; the Crown has divested itself of its great estates. The Church (God bless it !) has but a pittance. The property of the Lords, compared with that of the Commons, is as a drop of water in the ocean; and this House represents those Commons, the proprietors of the lands; and those proprietors virtually represent the rest of the inhabitants. When, therefore, in this House we give and grant, we give and grant what is our own. But in an American tax, what do we do? We, your Majesty's Commons of Great Britain, give and grant to your Majesty, what? Our own property? No! We give and grant to your Majesty, the property of your Majesty's Commons of America. It is an absurdity in terms.

I am not able to attend again to-day; when more resolutions are to be moved. It is probable the

"The distinction between legislation and taxation is essentially necessary to liberty. The Crown, the Peers, are equally legislative powers with the Commons. If taxation be a part of simple legislation, the Crown, the Peers, have rights in taxation as well as yourselves : rights which they will claim, which they will exercise, whenever the principle can be supported by power.

"There is an idea in some, that the colonies are virtually represented in this House. I would fain know by whom an American is represented here? Is he represented by any knight of the shire, in any county in this kingdom? Would to God that respectable representation was augmented to a greater number! Or will you tell him that he is represented by any representative of a borough a borough which, perhaps, its own representatives never saw? This is what is called 'the rotten part of the constitution.' It cannot continue a century if it does not drop, it must be amputated. The idea of a virtual representation of America in this House, is the most contemptible idea that ever entered into the head of man: it does not deserve a serious refutation.

"The Commons of America, represented in their several assemblies, have ever been in possession of the exercise of this, their constitutional right, of giving and granting their own money. They would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it. At the same time, this kingdom, as the supreme governing and legislative power, has always bound the colonies by her laws, by her regulations and restrictions in trade, in navigation, in manufactures in every thing, except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent. Here I would draw the line,

"sunt certi denique fines,

Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.

Mr. Pitt concluded with a familiar voice and tone, but so low, that it was not easy to distinguish what he said. A considerable pause ensued after he had done speaking. Mr. Conway at length rose. He said, "he had been waiting to see, whether any answer would be given to what had been observed by the right honourable gentleman, reserving himself for the reply; but as none had been given, he had only to declare, that his own sentiments were conformable to those of the right

"Some certain mean in all things may be found,
To mark our virtues, and our vices bound."

main question of repeal will not come on till Friday or Monday. Send the coach, my love, to

honourable gentleman. That they are so conformable," he said, " is a circumstance that affects me with the most sensible pleasure, and confers upon me the greatest honour. But two things fell from the gentleman, which gave me pain. It was objected, that the notice given to parliament of the troubles in America, was not early. I can assure the House, the first accounts were too vague and imperfect to be worth the notice of parliament. It is only of late that they have been precise and full. An overruling influence has also been hinted at. I see nothing of it I feel nothing of it - I disclaim it for myself, and, as far as my discernment can reach, for all the rest of his Majesty's ministers." Mr. Pitt said, "the excuse is a valid one, if it is a just one that must appear from the papers now before the House."

Mr. Grenville next entered, at great length, into a defence of his own measures. When he had concluded, several members rose to speak, amongst whom was Mr. Pitt; and the House was so clamorous to hear him, that the Speaker was obliged to call to order. After it was enforced, Mr. Pitt said, "that he did not mean to have gone any farther into the subject that day; but since the gentleman who spoke last, had gone into the whole question of the justice, the equity, the policy, the expediency of the Stamp-act, as well as into the right, he would follow him into the whole field, and combat his arguments on every point.He was going on, when Lord Strange rose to order. He said, that Mr. Pitt was about to speak twice in the same debate, although the House was not in a committee. Mr. George Onslow observed, that Mr. Pitt was in order, as nothing had been said but what was fairly deducable from the King's speech; and appealed to the Speaker, who was of the same opinion. Upon which, Mr. Pitt said, "I do not apprehend that I am speaking twice. I did expressly reserve a part of my subject, in order to save the time of the House, but I am compelled to proceed in it. I do not speak twice. I only finish, what I designedly left imperfect; but if the House is of a different opinion, far be it from me to indulge a wish to transgress against order. I am content, if it be your pleasure, to be silent."-Here he paused; but the House resounding with cries of, Go on! Go on! he proceeded :

morrow morning, and I shall then have it in my

"Gentlemen,-Sir (to the Speaker), I have been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their sentiments with freedom against this unhappy act, and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this House imputed as a crime. But the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty I mean to exercise. No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might have profited. He ought to have desisted from his project. The gentleman tells us, America is obstinate; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest. I come not here armed at all points, with law cases and acts of parliament, with the statute-book doubled down in dog's-ears, to defend the cause of liberty: if I had, I myself would have cited the two cases of Chester and Durham. I would have cited them, to have shown that, even under former arbitrary reigns, parliaments were ashamed of taxing a people without their consent, and allowed them representatives. Why did the gentleman confine himself to Chester and Durham? He might have taken a higher example in Wales; Wales, that never was taxed by parliament till it was incorporated. I would not debate a particular point of law with the gentleman. I know his abilities. I have been obliged to his diligent researches: but, for the defence of liberty, upon a general principle, upon a constitutional principle, it is a ground on which I stand firm; on which I dare meet any man. The gentleman tells us of many who are taxed, and are not represented. The India Company, merchants, stockholders, manufacturers. Surely many of these are represented in other capacities, as owners of land, or as freemen of boroughs. It is a misfortune that more are not equally represented: but they are all inhabitants, and as such, are they not virtually represented? Many have it in their option to be actually represented they have connections with those that elect, and they have influence over them. The gentleman mentioned the stockholders : I hope he does not reckon the debts of the nation as a part of the national estate. Since the accession of King William, many ministers, some of great, others of more moderate abilities, have taken the lead of government." He then went through the list of them, bringing it down till he came to himself, giving a short sketch of the characters of each of them.

None of these," he said, "thought, or even dreamed, of robbing the colonies of their constitutional rights. That was reserved to mark