On this business of America, I confess I am serious, even to sadness. I have had but one opinion concerning it since I sat, and before I sat in parliament. The noble lord * will, as usual, probably, attribute the part taken by me and my friends in this business, to a desire of getting his places. Let him enjoy this happy and original idea. If I deprived him of it, I should take away most of his wit, and all his argument. But I had rather bear the brunt of all his wit; and indeed blows much heavier, than stand answerable to God for embracing a system that tends to the destruction of some of the very best and fairest of his works. But I know the map of England as well as the noble lord or as any other person; and I know that the way I take is not the road to preferment. My excellent and honourable friend under me on the floor t, has trod that road with great toil for upwards of twenty years together. He is not yet arrived at the noble lord's destination. However, the tracks of my worthy friend are those I have ever wished to follow; because I know they lead to honour. Long may we tread the same road together; whoever may accompany us, or whoever may laugh at us on our journey! I honestly and solemnly declare, I have in all seasons adhered to the system of 1766, for no other reason than that I think it laid deep in your truest interests -and that, by limiting the exercise, it fixes on the firmest foundations a real, consistent, well-grounded authority in parliament. Until you come back to that system, there will be no peace for England.

The House divided on Mr. Fuller's motion; Yeas 49: Noes 182. So it passed in the negative.

* Lord North.

+ Mr. Dowdeswell.

BILL FOR REGULATING THE GOVERNMENT OF MASSA

THE

CHUSET'S BAY.

May 2.

HE Boston port bill formed only one part of the coercive plan proposed by the ministry as the effectual method of bringing America into obedience. Others of a derper and more extensive nature were behind, and appeared in dee time. Soon after the rejection of Mr. Fuller's motion a bill was brought in for the better regulating government in the pro. nce of Massachusett's Bay." The purpose of this bill was to a'r the constitution of that province as it stood upon the char of King William; to take the whole executive power out of th.. hands of the democratic part, and to vest the nomination of cosellors, judges, and magistrates of all kinds, including sheriffs, in the crown, and in some cases in the king's governor, and all to be removeable at the pleasure of the crown. On the third reading of this bill,

Mr. BUKRE said:

I have little to say, Sir; but what I have to offer, I shall offer with freedom. It has been asserted, that the nation is not alarmed, that no petitions of discontent are received. How can persons complain, when sufficient time is not given them to know what you are about? We have now seen the whole of this great work; I wish all was good that it contained. I am afraid a long series of labours and troubles will succeed. The question that is before you is a great one; it is no less than the proscription of provinces, and cities, and nations, upon their trial; except that when the saints of God are to judge the world, I do not know one of greater importance. I will endeavour to comply with the temper of the House, and be short in what I have to offer. [The House being noisy, and several members going out, Mr. Burke got up and said,] I find, Sir, I have got my voice, and I shall beat down the noise of the

House. Why did I compromise? [Here he produced the letters from Lord Hillsborough to the Americans, which declared, that his majesty or his ministers, had not any intention of laying any further taxes on America]. He dwelt some considerable time on the words which the letter contained, as a sort of declaration to the Americans that they should not be taxed. If you govern America at all, Sir, it must be by an army; but the bill before us, carries with it the force of that army; and I am of opinion, they never will consent without force being used. I have to protest against this bill, because you refuse to hear the parties aggrieved. Consider what you are doing, when you are taking the trial over the Atlantic seas, 3,000 miles, to Great Britain; witnesses may be subpoenaed, and called upon by the prisoner, as many as he pleases. Let me, for God's sake, beg that gentlemen would think a little more, that a fair trial may be had in America; and that while the king appoints the judge, there is a degree of fairness that the people should appoint the jury. Repeal, Sir, the act which gave rise to this disturbance; this will be the remedy, this will bring peace and quietness, and restore authority; but a great black book, and a great many red coats, will never be able to govern it. It is true, the Americans cannot resist the force of this country, but it will cause wranglings, scuffling, and discontent. Such remedies as the foregoing will create disturbances that can never be quieted.

The bill was read the third time and passed.

BUDGET FOR 1774.

May 18.

THIS day Lord North opened the Budget for the year 1774.

Upon this occasion,

Mr. BURKE said:

The noble lord has taken such a circuit, that it will be no easy matter to follow him; he has encompassed the world, gone into all parts of the globe, given an historical detail which includes the operations of ages, and touched upon every circumstance in the administration of affairs, that can either call down applause or raise resentment; and not content with giving an account of the services and ways and means of this country, he has translated the budget of the Abbé de Terray, and examined, by the nicest rules of criticism, the management of the French finances. Not content with this, he has taken a new office upon him, and carried up a complimentary address to the new monarch at Versailles; he has given him encomiums-he is prudent, pacific, and an economist. All this is a very great scope; great enough, Sir, and sufficient for the noble lord's abilities, without going out of his way to insult the character of a man not present to defend it of a man, Sir, who has abilities to reply to the noble lord's eloquence, and whose firmness, integrity, and love of his country render him a proper object for attacks from the noble lord. He has told us, that the western counties being fertile, not in the production of apples only, but of financiers, the cydur act came to be repealed. While they are fertile in the production of such men as my right honourable friend, they produce the greatest and most glorious crops that can honour or adorn a country. Sir, the composition which the noble lord speaks of was the disgrace of that tax, as it is of all others. A man of 4,000l. a year could compound for 40s, but how could the cottager compound?

What a farce to rest the oppression of a tax on the wealthy, who can buy it off!

With relation, Sir, to that part of the noble lord's speech to which he made such haste to get the state of France, I readily allow that the information which I have been able to get, (some of which I have reason to believe is very good,) pretty much confirms the account the noble lord has given. I cannot agree with my honourable friend (Colonel Barré) in his ideas of the point. France certainly cannot be in any flourishing situation, while her finances carry such an appearance; these depend on the wealth of the people; and if they were so rich, the Exchequer would taste the sweets of it more. Besides, Sir, the expences are beyond all measure ruinous. I have pretty good authority for saying, that the king draws after him a personal expence of between three and four millions sterling; and this is an article so rooted, and so vicious in its principle, that no act of the minister can either lessen or controul it. There is another article which does not appear in the military roll, which is that of fortifications: it is amazing what a sum of money is expended, or at least lavished under this head. Several well-informed persons have assured me, that this article equals the annual pay of all the troops; and in its very nature it is open to an infinity of abuses. Certain it is, that they have great resources in the system of their taxation; that no body can deny; how likely they are to adopt improvements is another matter. But the noble lord, in his panegyric on the new king, tells us, that if he is an economist, he will not go to war with his neighbours. But can the noble lord want to be told, that princes may be economists for very different than pacific views? Let him turn his eyes towards the great master of politics and oppression, the Prussian monarch, who is a very pattern of economy, and for what purpose, but to keep immense armies, which he pours into the territories of his neighbours with as little conscience as notice? This might convince him, that the