everything and all in all. Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious of our station, and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes our situa5 tion and ourselves, we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on America with the old warning of the church, Sursum corda! We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this. 10 high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire; and have made the most extensive, and the only honorable conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness of the human race. Let us get an American 15 revenue as we have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it is; English privileges alone will make it all it can be.

140. In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now (quod felix faustumque sit!) lay the first stone of 20 the Temple of Peace; and I move you,

That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights and 25 burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court of Parlia

ment.

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Upon this resolution the previous question was put and carried for the previous question, 270; against it, 78.

:

As the propositions were opened separately in the body of the speech, the reader perhaps may wish to see the whole of them together in the form in which they were

moved for. The first four motions and the last had the

previous question put on them. The others were negatived. The words in italics were, by an amendment that was carried, left out of the motion; which will appear in the journals, though it is not the practice to insert such 5 amendments in the votes.

Moved,

That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had 10 the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court of Parlia

ment.

That the said colonies and plantations have been liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates and taxes, given 15 and granted by Parliament, though the said colonies and plantations have not their knights and burgesses in the said high court of Parliament, of their own election, to represent the condition of their country; by lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies given, granted and assented to, in the said 20 court, in a manner prejudicial to the commonwealth, quietness, rest and peace of the subjects inhabiting within the same.

That, from the distance of the said colonies and from other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for procuring a representation in Parliament for the said colonies.

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That each of the said colonies hath within itself a body, chosen in part or in the whole by the freemen, freeholders or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the general assembly, or general court; with powers legally to raise, levy and assess, according to the several usages of such colonies, duties and taxes towards 30 defraying all sorts of public services.

That the said general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times freely granted

several large subsidies and public aids for his Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when required thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state; and that their right to grant the same and their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the 5 said grants have been at sundry times acknowledged by Parliament.

That it hath been found by experience that the manner of granting the said supplies and aids by the said general assemblies hath been more agreeable to the said colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the public service, than the mode of giving and grant10 ing aids in Parliament, to be raised and paid in the said colonies.

That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, "An act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the expor15 tation from this kingdom, of coffee and cocoanuts of the produce of the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the draw- 1 backs payable on China earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and plantations."

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That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, "An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping, of goods, wares and merchandise, at the town and within the harbor of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America."

That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, "An act for the impartial administration of justice in the cases of persons questioned for any acts done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England."

That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth

ป

year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, "An act for the better regulating the government of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England.”

That it may be proper to explain and amend an act made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, entitled, 5 "An act for the trial of treasons committed out of the king's dominions."

That from the time when the general assembly, or general court, of any colony or plantation in North America shall have appointed by act of assembly duly confirmed, a settled salary to the offices of 10 the chief justice and other judges of the superior court, it may be proper that the said chief justice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony shall hold his and their office and offices during their good behavior, and shall not be removed therefrom but when the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in 15 council, upon a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, or on a complaint from the governor or council or the house of representatives, severally, of the colony in which the said chief justice and other judges have exercised the said offices.

That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty or 20 vice-admiralty authorized by the fifteenth chapter of the fourth of George the Third, in such a manner as to make the same more commodious to those who sue or are sued in the said courts; and to provide for the more decent maintenance of the judges in the

same.

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NOTES

I. Every consideration calls upon us for care in dealing with America.

II. Austerity of the Chair is a formal expression, having no personal reference to Sir Fletcher Norton, who was Speaker,—a man petulant rather than austere. Burke wishes to ingratiate himself with the House by complimenting it in the person of its chair

man.

1:3. Human frailty: One of many examples in the speech, of humility assumed for the sake of oratorical effect.

Oratorical egotism-the assumption of humility or its opposite, complacency, in addressing an audience—was characteristic of Demosthenes and Cicero. Burke and other British orators of what might now be called the "old school," were proud to adopt what they regarded as an elegant and useful practice. Cicero was, in a special sense, Burke's model.

1:8. To my infinite surprise, etc., is evidence that the introductory paragraph was unpremeditated. The speech as a whole was extempore in form, though of course in substance it had been most carefully studied. It was written out and edited by Burke himself for publication.

The grand penal bill: Burke's name for a measure which had been proposed by Lord North, February 10, 1775, six weeks before Burke delivered the present speech. The New England colonies, especially Massachusetts, were to be punished for the obstinate op. position they had shown towards England's recent efforts to regulate their commerce. England had insisted that she had the right to control the importation of tea into the colonies. The opposition aroused by this claim was intensified by other acts of Parliament, such as quartering troops upon the colonists, interfering with the judiciary of Massachusetts, and annulling her charter. On the