XVII. policy have our ministers made the rule of their BOOK present conduct? Philip II. of Spain, who was in his day considered as the most gloomy and un- 1776. relenting tyrant in Christendom, adopted a wiser and more moderate policy. In his wars with the revolted provinces of Holland, he repeatedly promised, in terms the most explicit and positive, the complete redress of all their grievances, with out requiring a previous renunciation of their independence. But the doctrine now broached was a doctrine which led to the last extremities of human misery. It was a condition which could not be enforced without the effusion of oceans of blood, and in fact it was holding out to America the option only of SLAVERY or DEATH." The motion, after a long and passionate debate, was negatived by a majority of 62 voices; and from this time many of the opposition, chiefly of the Rockingham party, absented themselves from the house, and a clear field was left during the greater part of the ses sion to the ministers the vast supplies demanded by them being granted in almost empty houses, without examination or debate. A gloomy silence prevailed, and ministers in the height of their parliamentary triumphs were ill able to counterfeit the external appearances of satisfaction. The members of the secession, in vindication of themselves, urged, "that there XVIL 1776. BOOK was no saving a people against their will; that they had for a succession of years apprised and warned the nation of the dangers attending those ruinous measures which it was pursuing, and of the fatal precipice that must terminate this mad ministerial career-it was too degrading to be the confinual instruments of opposing the ineffective weapons of reason aud argument to a system of predetermined irritation and violence -that as good and bad success were equally urged, and alike admitted, as motives for a perseverance in this course, it was not the part of wisdom to strive with impossibilities, or to draw upon themselves the odium of their fellow-citizens by an ineffectual attempt to serve themthat they would therefore reserve their exertions for a season when the present national delirium had so far abated as to afford some hope of advantage." Soon after the recess, the minister, depending perhaps on the present indisposition of the minority to contest any point whatever with the court, introduced a bill to enable his majesty to secure and detain persons charged with or SUSPECTED of the crime of high treason committed in America, or on the high seas. With such negligent latitude, or, to speak more justly, with such treacherous artifice of construction, was this bill framed, that, by the enacting clauses, the crown i XVII. -1777. was enabled, at it's pleasure, to commit any per- BOOK XVII. 1777. BOOK tent of the powers vested by it in the crown, frankly and explicitly disavowed as to himself all design of extending the operation of the bill beyond its open and avowed objects. He said, "that the bill was intended for America, and not for England; that, as he would ask for no power that was not wanted, so he would scorn to receive it by any covert means; and that, far from wishing to establish any unconstitutional precedent, he neither sought nor wished any powers to be vested in the crown or its ministers which were capable of being employed to bad or oppressive purposes." He therefore agreed to receive the amendments proposed; the principal of which were in substance: 1. That the clause empowering his majesty to confine such persons as might be apprehended under this act in any part of his dominions, should be modified by the insertion of the words, "within the realm;" and 2dly, That an additional clause or proviso be inserted, "that nothing in this act shall be construed to extend to persons resident in Great Britain." These concessions gave extreme offence to the leaders of the high prerogative party, who had zealously defended the bill in its original state, and who now exclaimed, " that they were deserted by the minister in a manner which seemed calculated to disgrace the whole measure, to confirm all the charges and surmises of their ad XVII. 1777. versaries, and to fix all the odium upon them." воок And it was indeed sufficiently evident, from the whole conduct of the business, that the minister, on this as on other occasions, was not admitted into the inmost recesses of the royal cabinet. On the 9th of April, 1777, a message was delivered by the minister from the king, in which his majesty expressed his concern in acquainting the house with the difficulties he labored under from the debts incurred by expences of the civil government, amounting on the 5th of January preceding to upwards of 600,000l. And the house on this message resolving itself into a committee of supply, the minister moved, "That the sum of 618,000l. be granted, to enable his majesty to discharge the debts of the civil government; and that the sum of 100,000l. per annum, over and above the sum of 800,000/. be granted as a farther provision for the same." This gave rise to a vehement debate. It was affirmed to be a measure of the grossest impropriety and indecency to bring forward such a demand in such a season of national distress and calamity; when burdens are accumulated upon burdens, to tell a people already sinking under their load, that the grandeur of the crown is not sufficiently supported, and that an increase of taxes is necessary in order to increase its splendor! But even this plea, however inade |