BOOK discord fomented from principle in all parts of XVL the empire: Not peace to depend on the judicial 1775. determination of perplexing questions, or pre cision in marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government; but simple peace, sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely specific. I propose, said he, by removing the ground of the difference, and by restoring. the former unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country, to give permanent satisfaction to your people. And far from a scheme of ruling by discord, to reconcile them to each other in the same act, and by the bond of the very same interest which reconciles them to British government." He declared, that his plan of conciliation was founded on the sure and solid basis of experience; that neither the chimæras of imagination, abstract ideas of right, nor mere general theories of government, ought to be attended to. Taking advantage of the acquiescence of the house in the proposition of lord North, to infer, as from an established principle, that the American complaints were not without foundation, that conciliation was admissible previous to concession; and to conclude that the proposals ought to originate with Great Britain, he entered into a copious display and elucidation of his subject. Dwelling upon the enlarged population of Book XVI. America, and increased importance of her trade both in exports and imports, he mentioned the 1775. astonishing fact, that in the course of the present century the amount of those exports to Great Britain had arisen from five hundred and seventy thousand pounds to upwards of six millions annually. Animated by this view of their great and growing prosperity, and pursuing the colonists, in imagination, into every quarter of the globe where their active and ardent genius had found the means of exertion, he exclaimed in an high and lofty strain of eloquence" Whilst we follow them into the North amongst mountains of ice, whilst we behold them penetrating into the deepest recesses of Hudson's Bay, whilst we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, they have pervaded the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the South. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of the poles. Whilst some of them strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others pursue their gigantic toils on the shores of the Brazils. There is no climate that is not witness to their labours. When I contemplate these things; when I know they owe little or nothing to any care of ours, but that they have arrived at this perfection through a XVL BOOK wise and salutary neglect, I feel the pride of power and the presumption of wisdom die away 1775. within me, and I pardon every thing to the spirit of liberty." In the character of the Americans, he contended the love of freedom was the predominating feature; a fierce love of liberty, rendered jealous, suspicious, restive, and intractable, by the appearance of an attempt to wrest from then by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, the only advantage which in their estimation gave value to life. And he affirmed, that government, to be beneficial, or even practicable, must be adapted to the feelings, habits, and received opinions of the people; that all schemes of government which had been or could be proposed without due regard to these matters, would be found ineffectual and dangerous. Distance also from the seat of government, was moreover a consideration of great importance. "Three thousand miles of ocean," he exclaimed, "lie between you and your subjects! This is a powerful principle in the natural constitution of things for weakening government, of which no contrivance can destroy the effect. Seas roll, and months pass between the order and the execution. You have indeed winged ministers of vengeance, who carry your bolts to the remotest verge of the sea. But there a power XVI. 1775. steps in, which limits the arrogance of the BOOK raging passions, and says, 'Hither shalt thou go, and no further.' Who are you, that you should fret and rage and bite the chains of nature? Nothing worse happens to you than to all nations possessing extensive empire; and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. In large bodies the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities. Nature has said it. The Turk cannot govern Egypt and Arabia and Curdistan as he governs Thrace; nor has he the same dominion in Crimea and Algiers, which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster. The sultan gets such obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he may govern at all. -Spain in her American provinces submits to this immutable condition, the eternal law of extensive and detached empire." From these investigations he proceeded to examine the means by which a new government had been established without the ordinary artificial media of a positive constitution, better observed than the antient government in its most fortunate periods, and yet formed in the midst of anarchy. Against the daring and stubborn spirit which could achieve such a prodigy, only three modes of proceedings could be found BOOK to change it;-by removing the causes; to prose XVI. 1775. cute it as criminal; or to comply with it as necessary. To alter those causes which were moral, he pronounced no less impracticable than to remove those which were natural. The second mode was too vast for his ideas of jurisprudence. He confessed that he was not acquainted with the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people: he could not insult and ridicule the feelings of millions of his fellow-creatures: he was not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies, entrusted with magistracy of great authority and dignity, and charged with the safety of their fellowcitizens on the same title with himself; he really thought for a wise man this was not judicious; for a sober man not decent; for a mind tinctured with humanity, not mild or merciful. Nor were the criminations hitherto adopted attended with a correspondent effect. Massachusett's Bay was declared in rebellion, but no individual was convicted or even apprehended; measures of coercion were resorted to, rather resembling a qualified hostility against an independent power than the punishment of rebellious subjects. Conciliation and concession then alone remained. The colonies complained of being taxed in a parliament where they were not represented. If they were to be satisfied, it was |