reftrain the trade and commerce of the colonies of New-Jerley, Penfylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South-Carolina, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British islands in the Weft-Indies, under certain conditions and limitations." As meafures of this nature were now familiar, he only thought it neceffary to obferve, that as the fouthern provinces had acceded to the non-importation and non-exportation agreement, as well as the northern, it was conformable to reafon and juftice that they should equally feel our refentment, and experience the fame degree of punishment.

Nothing that could be called a debate arofe upon this motion. The ftrange fluctuation and contradiction that appeared in our public councils, was, however, commented upon on both fides of the House, and lamented on one. It was faid, that only a few days before, they were mocked with conciliatory propofitions, and nothing was to be heard but conceffion and moderation; temptations were to be held out to the better difpofed colonies, to induce them to break the confederacy; the wheat was to be feparated from the chaff, the elect from the reprobate; but now we are told, that the only way to reftore peace and harmony, to reconcile the Americans cordially to our government, and to fave our commerce from that deftruction which feems almoft inevitable, is to lump them all indifcriminately, without diftinction of friend or foe, in one common punishment; and to drive the whole continent of America into defpair, as a neceffary preparative to their being reftored to good temper.

During the time that this bill was in agitation, a long feries of

important evidence in behalf of the West-India merchants and planters, and in fupport of the petition which they had lately prefented, was laid before the Houfe. The celebrated Mr. Glover, the author of Leonidas, appeared as agent and manager for the petitioners upon this occafion. This gentleman conducted the business with great ability, and gained much applaufe by the eloquence and vaft extent of commercial knowledge he difplayed, in a very long fpeech which he delivered at the bar of the Houfe, upon fumming up, combining and explaining the different parts of the evidence. In this fpeech he ftated, with uncommon precifion, the immense value of the objects that were under confideration; endeavoured to fhew, that the spirit which had for fome time been fo prevalent, both within doors and without, for the extorting of pecuniary contributions from the colonies, was inconfiftent with true policy, with a right knowledge of commerce, of their circumftances, or of the benefits we already derived from them; and expatiated most pathetically upon the fatal confequences which he apprehended from a perfeverance in the present meafures.

It appeared by this evidence, that the fugar colonies were to be confidered as vaft manufactories, with this peculiar diftinction from others, that they were obliged to raife their own materials; that the cane was the raw material; fugar, melaffes, and rum, the manufacture; that the raifing of provifion was, and muft neceffarily continue to be a very fecondary object; that if neceffity fhould at any time render it otherwife, the manufacture must [*G] 4

of

of course decline, in proportion to the attention paid to the other; but that the scarcity of land in the fmall islands, the great value of cultivable land, for the purpose of raifing the material in all, together with the exceffive price of labour, and many infurmountable natural impediments, rendered the raising of any thing near a fufficient stock of provifions utterly impracticable. That the middle colonies of NorthAmerica were the great fources of fupply to the West-India islands, not only for provifion, but for an article equally necefiary, which is understood under the term of lumber, and by which is meant every kind of timber and wood that is used in building and the cooperage, excepting only fome particular cafes, wherein great ftrength and durability are required, and in which the hard woods peculiar to the tropical regions are preferable. It was alfo clearly fhewn, that no other fources of fupply could be opened either in America or in Europe, which, with respect to time, quantity, and many other circumftances, could prevent the dreadful effects of a famine in the fugar inlands; an event which would be rendered fill the more dreadful, by the valt fuperiority of the negroes to the white people in number, and the horrible barbarities which must be expected from them, in circumstances of calamity that would deftroy all order and diftinctions among the most civilized nations.. And that if there were even a poffibility of averting this fatal event, the iflands would notwithstanding be ruined, as their great ftaple commodities of fugar and rum would be useless for want of cafks to contain them; and they could

not receive staves from any part of Europe, upon fuch terms as they were able to comply with.

This courfe of enquiry and evidence has been the means of rendering the vaft importance and value of the fugar colonies more generally understood, than they perhaps would otherwife have been, and they are matters which may well exercise the speculations of the prefent, and the admiration of future ages. It appeared by a very moderate calculation, in which large allowances were made for every poffible excefs, that the capital in thofe islands, confifting in cultivated lands, buildings, negroes, and ftock of all kinds, did not amount to lefs than the immense fum of fixty millions fterling. That their exports of late years to Great-Britain run to about 190,000 hogsheads and puncheons of fugar and rum annually; amounting in weight to near 95,000 tons, and in value to about 4,000,000 1, exclufive of a great number of fmaller articles, and of their very great export to North-America. That their growth was fo rapid, and improvement fo great, that within a very few years, their export of fugar to this kingdom was increased 40,000 hogfheads annually, amounting to about 8co,acol. in value. It feems probable, though it could not be precisely afcertained, that more than one half of that vast capital of 60,000,000l. was either the immediate property, or was owing to perfons refident in this country. It alfo appeared, that the revenue gained above 700,000 1. a year upon the direct Weft-India trade, exclufive of its eventual and circuitous products, and of the African trade. It was fully fhewn,

that

that this immenfe capital and trade, as well as the African, neither of which could fubfift without the other, were from nature and circumftance both totally dependent upon North-America. Such were the ftakes which we were now fetting at hazard. In a few days after, March 22d. Mr. Burke made his conciliatory propofitions with refpect to the colonies. These propofitions were contained in a set of refolutions, and were accompanied and elucidated by that celebrated speech, which has been fince published, and is in every body's hands.

He observed, that the queftions on which they were that day to decide, were, Whether they ought to concede; and what that conceffion ought to be; and that to enable them to determine both on the one and the other of thofe great queftions with a firm and precife judgment, it was neceffary to confider diftinctly the true nature, and the peculiar circumstances of the object before them; because after all their struggles, whether they would or not, he infifted, that they must govern America, according to that nature, and to thofe circumstances; and not according to their own imaginations; not according to abftract ideas of right; nor by any means according to mere general theories of government.

Upon this principle he examined and explained, with the utmoft minuteness and accuracy, the internal and external, the natural and accidental circumftances of the colonies; he confidered them with refpect to fituation, resources, extent, numbers, amazing growth of population, rapid increase of commerce,

fisheries, and agriculture; from these he fhewed their strength and importance; he then enquired into that unconquerable spirit of freedom, by which they are diftinguished from all other people now existing in the known world; this violent paffion for liberty he traced from the fources of defcent, education, manners, religious principles, forms of government, and diftance from the original mover of government.

From all these circumftances he deduced the line of policy which fhould be pursued with regard to America. The detail was enriched and illuftrated with a number of the moft interefting facts, and curious obfervations, tending to eftablish the ideas of American government which he had laid down; to shew, that it must be adapted to the feelings, to the established habits and received opinions of the people; and that all fchemes of government which had been or fhould be propofed, without paying a due attention to thefe matters, would be found ineffectual, dangerous, or ruinous,

We fhould deem it inexcufable to quit this part of the fubject, without laying before our readers the aftonishing growth of the colonies within a little more than half a century, and the prodigious fhare they contributed to our greatnefs; a matter of the first importance to ourfelves; which perhaps cannot in any degree be paralleled in the hiftory of mankind; and which will equally excite the admiration, and exercife the fcepticifm of future ages. This gentleman, in taking a comparative view of the trade of this country at different periods, made it appear, that the whole

exports

exports to North America, the Weft-Indies, and Africa, in the year 1704, amounted only in value to 569,930l. That in the year 1772, which was taken upon a medium, as being neither the highest nor the lowest of those which might have been applied to of late, the exports to the fame places, (including thofe from Scotland, which in the year 1704 had no existence) amounted to no less than 6,024,1711. being in the proportion of nearly eleven to one. He also fhewed, that the whole export trade of England, including that to the colonies, amounted at the first period of 1704, only to 6,509,000 1.-Thus the trade to the colonies alone, was at the latter period, within less than half a million of being equal to what this great commercial nation carried on at the beginning of the prefent century with the whole world. And ftating the whole export commerce of this country at prefent, at fixteen millions, that to the colonies, which in the first period constituted but one twelfth of the whole, was now very confiderably more than one third.

However aftonishing this general increase of the whole colonies may appear, the growth of the province of Penfylvania is ftill more extraordinary. In the year 1704, the whole exports to that colony amounted only to 11,459 1. and in 1772, they were rifen to 507,909 1. being nearly fifty times the original demand; and almost equal to the whole colony export at, the firft period.

The mover, before he ftated his own propofitions, examined and controverted the different fchemes which had been either propofed, or talked of for the government of

America; particularly the idea of governing by force; a method, which being very easy and plaufible in theory, and requiring no skill nor ability in the defign or comprehenfion, the grofs of mankind are fond of recurring to, in all cafes which perplex their underftanding. This favourite idea he combated with great force, upon the different grounds of its temporary nature; its uncertainty; its deftroying the object in the very endeavour to preferve it; and that we have no fort of experience in favour of force as an inftrument in the rule of our colonies. That on the contrary, their growth and their utility have been owing to methods altogether different.

He then laboured to prove, that without enquiring whether it was to be yielded as a matter of right, or granted as a matter of favour, the only method of governing the colonies with fafety and advantage, was by admitting them to an inte rest in our conftitution; and, by recording that admiflion in the journals of parliament, to give them as ftrong an affurance as the nature of the thing would admit, that we mean for ever to adhere to that folemn declaration of fyftematic indulgence.

In the ftating and prosecution of this fubject, he difclaimed all difcuffions of right; the queftion being to be confidered folely as a matter of policy; he was not enquiring whether they had a right to render their people miferable; but whether it was not their intereft to render them happy? they were not to take the opinion of a lawyer on what they might do; but they were to confult reafon, humanity, justice, and true policy, in what

they

they ought to do. He likewife difclaimed all manner of new projects whatever; profeffing to derive the theoretic part of his propofitions from the ancient conftitutional policy of this kingdom with regard to reprefentation, as that policy has been declared in acts of parliament; and the practical, from plain matters of fact, acknowledged as fuch in the journals of the Houfe; he would only bring them back to that read which an uniform experience had marked out as the beft; and in which they had walked with fecurity, advantage, and honour, until the year 1763; that other methods might be more ingenious; bat in conftitutional difcuffions, it was much more fafe to attend to experience, and to the practice of their ancestors, than to any fpeculations however refined or plaufible. That thofe ancestors, who had left them fuch inestimable legacies, and fuch living monuments of their wifdom, as that conftitution, and thofe colonies, were the safest guides they could follow in any thing that related to the prefervation of either.

He then went into an hiftorical detail of the manner of admitting Ireland, Wales, and the counties palatine of Chester and Durham, into an interest in the conftitution: The ftate of things preceding that admiffion, and the confequences which followed. He fhewed from all these inftances, that this intereft in the British conftitution, was not only the caufe of the internal happinefs of thofe countries, but of their union with and obedience to the crown and fupreme legiflature.

From this experience, the communication to the members of an intereft in the conftitution, became

the great ruling principle of British policy; the mode of applying it being varied according to circumftances. Where the districts could be taken into the conftitution, they were united, as in the cafe of Wales, and the counties palatine. Where that was not the cafe, the conftitution was fent to them, as in Ireland. Similar conftitutions, accommodated to their respective circumftances, were given to the colonies; and as long as the spirit of thefe conftitutions was preferved, every thing went on happily. When it was violated, every thing fell into confufion.

His whole plan therefore was to go back to our old policy; and to record it in the journals, as a fettled ground of future parliamentary proceedings, in order to guard againft the mifchiefs of our late inconftancy. He made the doctrine, language, and mode of reafoning, contained in the preambles to former acts of parliament, the models whereby to frame his refolutions; and meant by them to establish the equity and justice of a taxation of America, by grant, and not by impofition. To mark the legal competency of the colony affemblies for the fupport of their government in peace, and for public aids in time of war. To acknowledge that this legal competency has had a dutiful and beneficial exercife; and that experience has fhewn the benefit of their grants, and the futility of parliamentary taxation as a method of Supply.

This was the fubftance of the fix firft refolutions. To thefe were added fome others relative to the fettlement of an independent judicature; for regulating the court of admiralty; and for the repeal of

the