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that the whole was a dispute for obedience to trade laws, and to the general legislative authority. Now they turned short; and to console our manufacturers and animate our soldiers, they told them for the first time, "the dispute is put on its true footing, and the grand contest is, not for empty honour, but substantial revenue." But manufacturers and soldiers, said he, will not be so consoled or so animated; because the revenue is as much an empty phantom as the honour; and the whole scheme of the resolution is oppressive, absurd, impracticable, and what, indeed, the ministers confess the Americans will not accept; nay, what they own America has already rejected. It is oppressive, because it was never the complaint of the Americans that the mode of taxation was not left to themselves; but that neither the amount and quantum of the grant, nor the application, was in their free choice. This was their complaint, and their complaint was just. What else is it to be taxed by act of parliament in which they are not represented, but for parliament to settle the proportion of the payment, and the application of the money? This is the purport of the present resolution. If an act of parliament compelled the city of Amsterdam to raise an hundred thousand pounds, is not Amsterdam as effectually taxed without its consent, as if duties to that amount were laid upon that city? To leave them the mode may be of some ease as to the collection; but it is nothing to the freedom of granting; in which the colonies are so far from being relieved by this resolution, that their condition is to be ten times worse that ever. I contend, that it is a far more oppresive mode of taxing than that hitherto used; for here no determinate demand is made. The colonies are to be held in durance by troops, fleets, and armies, until, singly and separately, they shall do what?until they shall offer to contribute to a service which they cannot know, in a proportion which they cannot guess, on a standard which they are so far from being able to ascertain, that parliament which is to hold it, has not ventured to hint what it is they expect. They are to be held pri

proper, if such proposal shall be approved by his majesty and
the two Houses of parliament, and for so long as such provisio
shall be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such pr
vince or colony, to levy any duty, tax, or assessment, or
impose any farther duty, tax, or assessment, except only
duties as it may be expedient to continue to levy or to ir
for the regulation of commerce; the net produce of the
last mentioned to be carried to the account of such pro
colony respectively." In the course of the debate to v
proposition gave rise,

Mr. BURKE declared, that he came to the day, upon the report of a change of measu resolution of supporting any thing, which m way towards conciliation; but that he fo tion altogether insidious in its nature, posely rendered to the last degree o in its language. Instead of being peace, it was calculated to increr fusions in America; and there to it. He readily admitted contradiction to every thir

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to by a majority of 274 against 88.

NING THE COMMERCE OF THE NEW NIES, AND PROHIBITING THEIR FISHANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND.

March 6.

al of February, Lord North obtained leave to bring "to restrain the trade and commerce of the prossachuset's Bay, and New Hampshire; the colonies cut and Rhode Island, and Providence Plantation America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British the West Indies; and to prohibit such provinces and from carrying on any fishery on the Banks of Newfoundor other places therein to be mentioned, under certain Lions, and for a time to be limited." On the 6th of March, the motion that the blll be engrossed,

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Mr. BURKE rose. He said he was afraid that any deate on this subject would be to little purpose. When this parliament, originally disengaged to any system, and free to choose among all, had, previous to any examination whatsoever, begun by adopting the proceedings of the last, the whole line of our public conduct was then determined. [Here the majority raised a great cry of approbation.] He said the cry was natural, and the inference from what he

at an auction against each other and against themselves, until the king and parliament shall strike down the hammar, and say " enough."

This species of auction, to be terminated, not at the discretion of the bidder, but at the will of the sovereign power, is a kind of absurd tyranny, which I challenge the ministers to produce any example of, in the practice of this or of any other nation. The conduct the most like this method of setting the colony assemblies at guessing what contribution may be most agreeable to us in some future time, was the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar, who having forgot a dream, ordered the assemblies of his wise men, on pain of death, not only to interpret his dream, but to tell him what his dream was. To set the impracticability and absurdity of this scheme in the stronger light, I ask, in case an assembly makes an offer which should not be thought sufficient by parliament, is not the business to go back again to America? and so on backwards and forwards as often as the offer is displeasing to parliament? And, thus, instead of obtaining peace by this proposition, all our distractions will be increased tenfold, and continue for ever. It is said, indeed, by the minister, that this scheme will disunite the colonies. Tricks in government have sometimes been successful; but never, when they are known, avowed, and hackneyed. The Boston port bill was a declared cheat, and accordingly, far from succeeding, it was the very first thing that united all the colonies against us, from Nova Scotia to Georgia. The idea of deducting the value of goods supposed to be taken by the colonists, because we sold cheap, at a time when we did not suffer the colonies to make a trial, and by such arithmetic to deduce the propriety of their paying in nearly an equal proportion with the people of England, was of a piece with the rest of the policy and the argument of this profound project. I strongly protest against any scheme, which shall begin by any mode of extorting revenue. Every benefit, natural or political, must be had in the order of things, and in its proper seaRevenue from a free people must be the consequence

son.

of peace, not the condition on which it is to be obtained. If we attempt to invert this order, we shall have neither peace nor revenue. If we are resolved to eat our grapes crude and sour, instead of obtaining nourishment from them, we shall not only set an edge on our own teeth, but on those of our posterity for ever. I am therefore for the reconsideration of the resolution until it can be brought to some agreement with common sense.

The resolution was agreed to by a majority of 274 against 88.

BILL FOR RESTRAINING THE COMMERCE OF THE N
ENGLAND COLONIES, AND PROHIBITING THEIE F
ING ON THE BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND.

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March 6.

N the 10th of February, Lord North obtainer

in a bill" to restrain the trade and commeren e

vinces of Massachuset's Bay, and New Ham
of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Pra, sit 'n
in North America, to Great Britain, Irela
islands in the West Indies; and to prohib
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upon the motion that the bil

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