The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact, –

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, ac5 cording 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 said grants have been at sundry times acknowledged by Parliament.

To say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian 10 wars, and not to take their exertion in foreign ones so high as the supplies in the year 1695, not to go back to their public contributions in the year 1710, I shall begin to travel only where the journals give me light,— resolving to deal in nothing but fact authenticated by parliamentary 15 record, and to build myself wholly on that solid basis.

On the 4th of April, 1748,2 a committee of this House came to the following resolution :

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that it is just and reasonable that the several provinces and colonies of Massa20 chusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island, be reimbursed the expenses they have been at in taking and securing to the crown of Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its dependencies.

These expenses were immense for such colonies. 25 They were above £200,000 sterling: money first raised and advanced on their public credit.

On the 28th of January, 1756,3 a message from the king came to us to this effect :

1 So far back.

2 Journals of the House, Vol. XXV. 3 Journals of the House, Vol. XXVII.

His Majesty, being sensible of the zeal and vigor with which his faithful subjects of certain colonies in North America have exerted themselves in defence of his Majesty's just rights and possessions, recommends it to this House to take the same into their consideration, and to enable his Majesty to give them such assistance as may 5 be a proper reward and encouragement.

On the 3d of February, 1756,1 the House came to a suitable resolution, expressed in words nearly the same as those of the message, but with the further addition that the money then voted was as an encouragement to the 10 colonies to exert themselves with vigor. It will not be necessary to go through all the testimonies which your own records have given to the truth of my resolutions. I will only refer you to the places in the journals:

Vol. XXVII. - 16th and 19th May, 1757.

Vol. XXVIII. - June 1st, 1758; April 26th and 30th, 1759; March 26th and 31st, and April 28th, 1760; Jan. 9th and 20th, 1761. Vol. XXIX.- Jan. 22d and 26th, 1762; March 14th and 17th, 1763.

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Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of Parliament 20 that the colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety. This nation has formally acknowledged two things: first, that the colonies had gone beyond their abilities, Parliament having thought it necessary to reimburse them; secondly, that they had acted legally and laudably in their 25 grants of money and their maintenance of troops, since the compensation is expressly given as reward and encouragement. Reward is not bestowed for acts that are

1 Journals of the House, Vol. XXVII.

unlawful; and encouragement is not held out to things that deserve reprehension. My resolution therefore does nothing more than collect into one proposition what is scattered through your journals. I give you nothing but 5 your own; and you cannot refuse in the gross what you have so often acknowledged in detail. The admission of this, which will be so honorable to them and to you, will indeed be mortal1 to all the miserable stories by which the passions of the misguided people have been 10 engaged in an unhappy system. The people heard, indeed, from the beginning of these disputes, one thing continually dinned in their ears, that reason and justice demanded that the Americans, who paid no taxes, should be compelled to contribute. How did that fact of their pay15 ing nothing stand when the taxing system began? When Mr. Grenville began to form his system of American revenue, he stated in this House that the colonies were then in debt two million six hundred thousand pounds sterling money, and was of opinion they would discharge 20 that debt in four years. On this state, those untaxed people were actually subject to the payment of taxes to the amount of six hundred and fifty thousand a year. fact, however, Mr. Grenville was mistaken. The funds given for sinking the debt did not prove quite so ample 25 as both the colonies and he expected. The calculation was too sanguine; the reduction was not completed till some years after, and at different times in different colonies. However, the taxes after the war continued too 1 Fatal.

In

great to bear any addition with prudence or propriety; and when the burdens imposed in consequence of former requisitions were discharged, our tone became too high to resort again to requisition. No colony since that time ever has had any requisition whatsoever made to1it.

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We see the sense 2 of the crown and the sense of Parliament on the productive nature of a revenue by grant. Now search the same journals for the produce of the revenue by imposition. Where is it? Let us know the volume and the page. What is the gross, what is the net 10 produce? To what service is it applied? How have you appropriated its surplus? What, can none of the many skilful index-makers that we are now employing find any trace of it? Well, let them and that rest together. But are the journals, which say nothing of the 15 revenue, as silent on the discontent? Oh, no! a child may find it. It is the melancholy burden and blot of every page.

I think, then, I am, from those journals, justified in the sixth and last resolution, which is,

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 granting aids in Parliament, to be raised and paid in the said colonies.

This makes the whole of the fundamental part of the plan. The conclusion is irresistible. You cannot say 2 Opinion.

1 Upon.

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that you were driven by any necessity to an exercise of the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot assert that you took on yourselves the task of imposing colony taxes, from the want of another legal body that is competent to 5 the purpose of supplying the exigencies of the state without wounding the prejudices of the people. Neither is it true that the body so qualified and having that competence had neglected the duty.

The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is, 10- whether you will choose to abide by a profitable experience or a mischievous theory; whether you choose to build on imagination or fact; whether you prefer enjoyment or hope; satisfaction in your subjects or discontent?

If these propositions are accepted, everything which has 15 been made to enforce a contrary system must, I take it for granted, fall along with it. On that ground I have drawn the following resolution, which, when it comes to be moved, will naturally be divided in a proper man

20 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 exportation from this kingdom, of coffee and cocoanuts of the produce of 25 the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually preventing the clandestine running1 of goods in the said colonies and plantations." And that it may be proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his pres 1 Smuggling.