jurisdiction. The old questions between political parties are at rest. No great question so thoroughly possesses the public mind as this of slavery. This discussion will hasten the inevitable reorganization of parties upon the new issues which our circumstances suggest. It will light up a fire in the country which may, perhaps, consume those who

kindle it.

I cannot believe that the people of this country have so far lost sight of the maxims and principles of the Revolution, or are so insensible to the obligations which those maxims and principles impose, as to acquiesce in the violation of this compact.

EARL OF CHATHAM

THE RIGHT OF TAXING AMERICA

[William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, an English orator and statesman, was born in London in 1708. He studied at Oxford and entered the army, from which he was dismissed for personally offending the king. He had been chosen to the House of Commons prior to this, and now chose a career in public life, taking the side of the Prince of Wales, who was at odds with his father. Chatham (as yet known simply under his commoner's name of William Pitt) became a popular man owing to his eloquence and ability, and in 1757 was placed at the head of the government, to the king's chagrin. The new administration waged a brilliantly successful foreign war, but the premier lost power when George III. came to the throne. The ousted minister was some years later invited to return, when he was made Viscount Pitt and Earl of Chatham. His subsequent career was as successful as many had expected it would be, and he retired in a year or two, not to reappear conspicuously as a public man until he rose from his sick bed and made a memorable speech in the House of Lords in opposition to the recognition of American independence. The strain of this effort brought on a fit which interrupted his remarks. He had to be carried from his seat, and in a few weeks he died (1778). The following speech, which won him friends in America and enemies in England, was made in the House of Commons, 1766.]

MR.

R. SPEAKER: I came to town but to-day. I was a stranger to the tenor of his majesty's speech and the proposed address till I heard them read in this house. Unconnected and unconsulted, I have not the means of information. I am fearful of offending through mistake, and therefore beg to be indulged with a second reading of the proposed address. [The address being read, Mr. Pitt went on]: I commend the king's speech, and approve of the address in answer, as it decides nothing, every gentleman being left at perfect liberty to take such a part concerning America as he may afterward see fit. One word

only I cannot approve of-an "early" is a word that does not belong to the notice the ministry have given to Parliament of the troubles in America. In a matter of such importance the communication ought to have been immediate.

I speak not now with respect to parties. I stand up in this place single and independent. As to the late ministry [turning himself to Mr. Grenville, who sat within one of him], every capital measure they have taken has been entirely wrong! As to the present gentlemen, to those at least whom I have in my eye [looking at the bench where General Conway sat with the lords of the treasury], I have no objection. I have never been made a sacrifice by any of them. Their characters are fair, and I am always glad when men of fair character engage in his majesty's service. Some of them did me the honor to ask my opinion before they would engage. These will now do me the justice to own I advised them to do it; but, notwithstanding (for I love to be explicit), I cannot give them my confidence. Pardon me, gentlemen [bowing to the ministry], confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom. Youth is the season of credulity. By comparing events with each other, reasoning from effects to causes, methinks I plainly discover the traces of an overruling influence.

There is a clause in the Act of Settlement obliging every minister to sign his name to the advice which he gives to his sovereign. Would it were observed! I have had the honor to serve the crown, and if I could have submitted to influence, I might have still continued to serve; but I would not be responsible for others. I have no local attachments. It is indifferent to me whether a man was rocked in his cradle on this side or that side of the Tweed. I sought for merit wherever it was to be found. It is my boast that I was the first minister who looked for it, and found it, in the mountains of the north. I called it forth, and drew into your service a hardy and intrepid race of men-men who, when left by your jealousy, became a prey to the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh to have overturned the state in the war before the last. These men, in the last war, were brought to combat on your side. They served with fidelity, as they fought with valor, and conquered for

you in every part of the world. Detested be the national reflections against them! They are unjust, groundless, illiberal, unmanly! When I ceased to serve his majesty as a minister, it was not the country of the man by which I was moved-but the man of that country wanted wisdom, and held principles incompatible with freedom.

It is a long time, Mr. Speaker, since I have attended in Parliament. When the resolution was taken in this house to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to be carried in my bed-so great was the agitation of my mind for the consequences-I would have solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne my testimony against it. It is now an act that has passed. I would speak with decency of every act of this house, but I must beg the indulgence of the House to speak of it with freedom.

I hope a day may soon be appointed to consider the state of the nation with respect to America. I hope gentlemen will come to this debate with all the temper and impartiality that his majesty recommends and the importance of the subject requires; a subject of greater importance than ever engaged the attention of this house-that subject only excepted when, near a century ago, it was the question whether you yourselves were to be bond or free. In the meantime, as I cannot depend upon my health for any future day (such is the nature of my infirmities), I will beg to say a few words at present, leaving the justice, the equity, the policy, the expediency of the act to another time.

I will only speak to one point, a point which seems not to have been generally understood-I mean to the right. Some gentlemen [alluding to Mr. Nugent] seem to have considered it as a point of honor. If gentlemen consider it in that light, they leave all measures of right and wrong to follow a delusion that may lead to destruction. It is my opinion that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies. At the same time, I assert the authority of this kingdom over the colonies to be sovereign and supreme in every circumstance of government and legislation whatsoever. They are the subjects of this kingdom, equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind

and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen; equally bound by its laws, and equally participating in the constitution of this free country. The Americans are the sons, not the bastards of England. Taxation is no part of the governing or legislative power. The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the commons alone. In legislation the three. estates of the realm are alike concerned; but the concurrence of the peers and the crown to a tax is only necessary to clothe it with the form of a law. The gift and grant is of the commons alone. In ancient days the crown, the barons, and the clergy possessed the lands. In those days the barons and the clergy gave and granted to the crown. They gave and granted what was their own. At present, since the discovery of America, and other circumstances permitting, the commons are become the proprietors of the land. The church (God bless it!) has but a pittance. The property of the lords, compared with that of the commons, is as a drop of water in the ocean; and this house represents those commons, the proprietors of the lands, and those proprietors virtually represent the rest of the inhabitants. When, therefore, in this house, we give and grant, we give and grant what is our own. But in an American tax, what do we do? "We, your majesty's commons for Great Britain, give and grant to your majesty "—what? Our own property? No! "We give and grant to your majesty' the property of your majesty's commons of America! It is an absurdity in terms.

The distinction between legislation and taxation is essentially necessary to liberty. The crown and the peers are equally legislative powers with the commons. If taxation be a part of simple legislation, the crown and the peers have rights in taxation as well as yourselves-rights which they will claim, which they will exercise, whenever the principle can be supported by power.

There is an idea in some that the colonies are virtually represented in the House. I would fain know by whom an American is represented here. Is he represented by any knight of the shire, in any county in this kingdom? Would to God that respectable representation was augmented to a greater number. Or will you tell him that he is represented by any representative of a borough?—a borough