XVIL. 1775. BOOK out furnishing the means indispensable to its attainment. The noble mover observed, "that the adoption of the present motion, or of something equivalent to it, exclusive of the evident reasonableness of the thing, seemed to be rendered at this time absolutely necessary by two circumstances, to which his grace particularly called the attention of the house. The first was the doctrine of UNCONDITIONAL SUBMISSION, so much insisted upon in the other house by the noble lord at the head of the American depart ment. It was the object of the present motion to disarm the Americans of the rage and horror which this doctrine had excited in their minds; and to inculcate the idea that there were terms and conditions implying mutual concessions, on which a satisfactory and permanent accommodation might be founded, and their constitutional rights secured. The second circumstance to which the noble mover alluded, was the certain intelligence which his grace had himself received, that two French gentlemen, charged, as there was good reason to believe, with a commission of high and momentous import, had lately been introduced by general Washington to the congress, with whom conferences had been actually commenced. Thus a direct interference on the part of foreign powers in our civil contentions had undoubtedly taken place, and XVII. from a most dangerous and hostile quarter. No BOOK time was therefore to be lost to counteract its effects, and upon the decision of the present moment the fate of the empire depended." In vain were the powers of reason and eloquence exhausted in support of this motion. The spirit of infatuation and delusion seemed to have attained to its acmé. The lords in administration openly avowed and vindicated the doctrine of unconditional submission. They asserted, "that the power of granting pardons with proper exceptions was competent to every just and requisite purpose; they asserted the impossibility of an effectual assistance on the part of America; they declared their utter disregard and disbelief of any interference on the part of France, or any other foreign power, which, possessing colonies of its own, could never be so devoid of policy as to encourage the spirit of revolt in those of another nation; "-not in the least sensible that the whole tenor of their own conduct afforded the most striking proof how infinitely motives of pride, passion, and revenge, predominate in the heart of man and the councils of princes, over those of reason, policy, and discretion. After a debate, continued to a very late hour, the motion was rejected by 91 voices to 31; and from this moment all rational hope of conciliation vanished. What had been 1776. XVIL 1775. BOOK hitherto perfectly easy and feasible, now became, by a change of circumstances, desperate and hopeless; and on hearing the decision of this memorable day, it might with fatal prophetic certainty be pronounced, "TIME IS PAST." This was the last debate of importance in the present session, which was terminated May 23, 1776, by a speech, in which his majesty was graciously pleased to intimate "his hope, that his rebellious subjects would still be awakened to a sense of their errors; at the same time expressing his confidence, that if due, i. e. unconditional, submission could not be obtained by a voluntary return to their duty, it would be effectuated by a full exertion of the great force entrusted to him." WAR, in its most hideous form, was now therefore waged, without any prospect or probability of accommodation, But though the ministerial majorities in both houses were so great, the nation at large might be considered as much more equally divided on this grand question. At the head of those who were zealous for the prosecution of the war in all its terrors may be accounted the KING himself; who, being most unfortunately and dreadfully misinformed and misled in the whole of this business, conceived that the DIGNITY of his CROWN was best vindicated by those measures of coercion which could be carried into effect only by the devastation of his dominions and the slaughter BOOK of his subjects *. The powerful remains of the once numerous and now favored faction of the 1775. tories, including a large proportion of the landed interest, recently combined by a strange XVII. * MACHIAVEL (whose famous treatise Del Principe is by many supposed to be designed, as it is unquestionably calculated, to hold up the character of a prince who makes his own aggrandizement the sole object of his government, to the detestation of mankind, and whose other political writings are unequivocally favorable to the cause of liberty,) thus in his History of Florence represents the Florentines expostulating by the mouth of an antient and venerable citizen with one of their sovereigns : "We are come, sir, in consequence of the order you have issued for assembling the people. It appears manifest to us, that you design by extraordinary means to obtain that which we have not been willing to grant to you. Your design is to enslave a state which has never yet lost its freedom. Have you well considered the importance which, in a state like this, the people annex to liberty, and how enthusiastically they are attached to its very name? This ardent love of freedom no force can overcome, no length of time can obliterate, no merit on the part of its destroyer can counter-balance. Consider the immense force which will be necessary to keep such a state enslaved.-You must calculate on having all the inhabitants of the country your enemies. If your opponents were few in number, you might extirpate them by banishment and the sword; but against universal hatred there can be found no remedy. It is now for you to decide, whether you will attempt to enslave this people to keep them enslaved will be impossible; no citadel, no guards, no foreign force will be sufficient or be content with the authority which we have BOOK political phenomenon with the veteran and ☑ faithful band of placemen, pensioners, and king's friends; and, in a word, all whose fortunes or expectancies depended on the smiles of the court, were to a man eager and ardent in their XVII. 1776. voluntarily entrusted to you. This we sincerely wish both for our sakes and your own. For once again remember, that no dominion is durable which rests on any other foundation than the free and willing submission of the people." The history informs us, that the prince to whom this discourse was addressed, obstinately persisting in his wild and nefarious projects, was in a short time compelled to fly from Florence, and to seek for safety in an obscure and ignominious exile. Delle Historic, lib. ii. p. 106.-" There is," says the same celebrated writer, in the treatise Del Principe, cap. v. "no method of keeping possession of a conquered country so effectual as to impoverish or ruin it. Whoever becomes master of a state accustomed to freedom, unless he adopt this method, may expect soon to be driven out of it. For the name of liberty and their antient laws will be the unceasing incitement to rebellion. There will be an eternal hatred, an eternal thirst for revenge, an eternal stimulus in the memory of their antient freedom; so that the most sure method of keeping them in subjection is to destroy or dissipate them." What Machiavel thus ironically and in the spirit of the most bitter and indignant sarcasm recommends, the English court at this period seemed, in the excess of a wretched and almost judicial infatuation, seriously to adopt as the rule and measure of its dismal and barbarous policy, "Est quod gratias agamus Machiavello," says lord Bacon, "et hujusmodi scriptoribus, qui apertè et indissimulanter proferunt quid homines facere soleant, non quid debeant." De Augm, Scient. I. vii. c. 2. |