import no merchandise whatever, until the Stamp Act should be repealed. The New York mob, augmented by sailors dismissed from the ships in harbour, were headed by one Isaac Sears, and surrounded the Lieutenant-Governor's house, demanding the stamps, that they might burn them. Colden sent for a detachment of marines from the Coventry ship of war, but dared not bid them fire on the people. He retired into the fort, while the mob entered his coach-house, seized his carriages, and placed in one of them an effigy of himself, with another figure to represent the Devil, both of which they committed to the flames on the Bowling Green. Some negotiations took place

next day between Colden and the town council; the stamps were given up by him to the custody of that municipal authority in the City Hall; and there was no further disturbance.

The

Assemblies of all the other Provinces confirmed the resolutions of the New York Congress, which were further supported by numerous town and county meetings. Every shop, farm, and private household, was bound to do without the commodities of importation from England, unless the British Parliament would repeal the Stamp Act. We shall presently see that the Americans had good reason to expect its repeal, which their unanimous resistance did in fact speedily obtain.

There had been a change of Government in England since the Americans were roused to anger by the passing of Grenville's unhappy measure. The Ministry of which the Duke of Bedford was the nominal head, but of which Grenville was the efficient director, had deeply offended King George, after his recovery from a first attack of mental disease, by its conduct in framing a Regency Bill. Some conferences with Pitt and others failing to produce any results, the Whig Marquis of Rockingham, in July, 1765, formed a new Ministry, in which the Duke of Grafton and General Conway were Secretaries of State, the latter for the Southern Department, including the American colonies, while the Earl of Dartmouth was President of the Board

of Trade.

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These had never committed themselves to an arbitrary treatment of the colonies. On the other hand, both from Lord Northington, who continued to be Lord Chancellor, and from Charles Yorke, the Attorney-General, legal doctrines of a severe and pedantic character had been heard in support of the prerogative which the colonists denied. It was therefore uncertain how the Rockingham Ministry would proceed with regard to America; and, though Edmund Burke was secretary to the Prime Minister, his first and last approach to official power, there was no probability of his being able to influence its decisions. Still, the Americans felt sure that they would meet with sympathy from the generous Conway; and in this they were not deceived. The opinions of Lord Shelburne, though not now in office, had considerable weight in Ministerial Councils, and were consistently inclined to a liberal and moderate course, while he privately cherished the acquaintance of Franklin. But though, during the autumn months of that year, every post from America brought news of fresh troubles, disputes, and riots, occasioned by the obnoxious Stamp Act, the Rockingham Ministry still delayed coming to any resolution upon this urgent affair of Imperial Government. The Secretary of State and the Board of Trade received and replied to their American correspondence, as so much ordinary business. Neither the alarming despatches of the Governors and Crown officers, who predicted an insurrection, nor the eloquent addresses of the colonial patriots and champions of freedom, nor the memorials of London merchants, who said that America owed them millions of money, which they feared to lose by this political quarrel, had much effect on the Rockingham Ministry. A witty epigram was written in those days:

"Tell our statesmen the truth, if you may without shocking 'em, For the Nation's asleep, and the Minister's rocking 'em!"

But the voice of Pitt, long unheard at Westminster, was now to wake them up.

WHEN the King reopened Parliament, in December, 1765, his Ministers had settled no measure for the restoring of peace in America. They had, in October, by an address from the Board of Trade, informed his Majesty that the Acts of the British Parliament were "treated with indecent disrespect;" while Secretary Conway had instructed General Gage, as well as the Governors, to behave with "prudence and lenity," and to use "persuasive methods." They shrank from enforcing the Stamp Act by violent means, yet were reluctant to give up the claim of a taxing power; to a deputation of merchants, they talked of suspending the Act. The King felt extreme personal resentment at the humiliating defeat of his governing representatives in America. With the aid of Charles Townshend, who was an assiduous courtier, his Majesty looked for an opportunity of compelling submission on the part of the stubborn colonists. In the debates of both Houses on their Address of reply to the Royal Speech, amendments were moved denouncing the "insurrections of open and rebellious force " in America, and promising to repress them forthwith. Ministers said nothing; they were absent from the Commons; but Shelburne in the Lords, and Beckford in the Lower House, spoke for a repeal of the Stamp Act. All the party of high prerogative and official pedantry,-Bedford, Halifax, Sandwich, Temple, and Grenville, with Chancellor Northington, and Lord Chief Justice Mansfield,— joined in a chorus of scolding menaces against the refractory colonies. Charles Townshend vowed that he would see them "reduced to their primitive deserts," sooner than yield to their pretensions.

resolution was taken to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to be carried in my bed, I would have solicited some kind hand to lay me down on this floor, to bear my testimony against it. America, being neither really nor virtually represented at Westminster, cannot be held legally, or constitutionally, or reasonably, subject to obedience to any Money Bill of this kingdom. Taxation is no part of the governing power; the taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone. But in an American tax, what do we do? We, his Majesty's Commons of Great Britain, give and grant to his Majesty-what? Our own property? No. We give and grant to his Majesty the property of his Majesty's Commons in America. It is an absurdity in terms. The Commons of America, represented in their several assemblies, have ever been in possession of the exercise of this, their constitutional right of giving and granting their own money. They woul have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it."

The Southern Secretary of State, General Conway, rose immediately when Pitt sat down, and spoke a few words that decided the repeal of the Stamp Act. "I not only adopt all that has just been said," he remarked, "but believe it expresses the sentiments of most, if not all, the King's servants, and wish it may be the unanimous opinion of the House." Upon this, Grenville stepped forth with an indignant speech in defence of the Stamp Act, insisting that taxation was part of the sovereign legislative functions of Parliament; and that it could and ought to be exercised, as in many other cases it was, over those who sent no repre sentatives to Parliament. He reproached "the factions in that House" for giving birth to "the seditious spirit in America, now almost in open rebellion." Pitt was ready to meet this accusation. "The right honourable gentleman," he said, "tells us that America is obstinate; that America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. If its millions of inhabitants had submitted, taxes

And

would soon have been laid by the British Government upon Ireland, without its consent. then, if ever this nation should have a tyrant for its King, they who had been so dead to all feeling of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." This was a signal expression of political sentiment, such as could not fail to have its effect upon the whole public life of the nation and of the age -nay, of succeeding ages and of foreign nationsfar beyond the controversy on the taxation of our American colonies. It was the signal, one may consider, for the commencement of the great Liberal movement, both in England and in France, which has not yet ceased, after a hundred years, to transform the political conditions of the world. The words spoken by Pitt on that occasion were equivalent to a battle won. The King was next day advised, by, Grafton and Conway, to send for Pitt, and take counsel with him; but this was not done, nor did the attempt to make room for Pitt in the Rockingham Ministry obtain success. Yet the petition and addresses of the American Congress at New York were duly laid by the Secretary of State before the King and the Houses of Parliament. They were received, notwithstanding some opposition; and the Commons ordered a thorough inquiry, in Committee of the whole. House, examining many witnesses at its bar, of whom the most illustrious was Benjamin Franklin.* It was soon understood that the Ministry would propose the repeal of the Stamp Act. But this would be joined with a requisition obliging the colonial Legislatures to provide compensation for Hutchinson, Oliver, and the other persons whose private property had been damaged in the riots of the preceding summer. And, before the Stamp Act was repealed, they would pass a declaratory Act or resolution, affirming the rightful prerogative of the British Parliament to make laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." This was the limit of concession; this the extent of asserted power.

The debates upon these connected proposals, from the 3rd of February to the 17th of March, in both Houses of Parliament, will always be read with interest by the student of English constitutional history, but need scarcely detain us in this narrative. The most characteristic incident was the *Works of Franklin, edited by Jared Sparks, Vol. IV. His evidence, reported in question and answer, deals with a variety of facts and arguments which have been detailed in the last three chapters of this History. It deserves careful perusal as an exposition of the domestic affairs of Pennsylvania and other provinces, as well as of the sentiments with which their people then regarded the taxing measures of British legislation.

grand controversial duel in the House of Lords between two of the most eminent and accomplished British lawyers: namely, William Murray, Lond Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice; and Charles Pratt, Lord Camden, then Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, but soon afterwards Lord Chancellor. Never was a great constitutional question,

of legal precedent and of general policy, discussed with greater ability, than by these two learned, acute, and eloquent men, in whose presence Lord Northington, the actual Lord Chancellor, made but a small figure. Camden had a mind superior to that of his great rival in its power of appreciating the principles of justice and sentiments of liberality belonging to a political question; while Mansfield was perhaps more completely furnished with historical and professional knowledge, and more dexterous in its application. Next to Pitt, Shelburne, and Conway, as their Parliamentary advocates, the gratitude of the colonies was fairly due to Camden, who not merely supported the repeal of the Stamp Act, but strongly disapproved of the Act declaring their subjection to the British Legislature. Five peers only-Camden, Shelburne, Cornwallis, and two others voted against that declaratory resolution; and in the House of Commons there were less than ten members, including Pitt, Beckford, and Barré, to oppose it. The Act which embodied its purport was closely followed or accompanied by that for the Repeal of the Stamp Duties. Burke's maiden speech was made on this occasion. In the Act there was to have been a clause requiring the colonies to grant indemnities for damage done to private property by riotous mobs. The clause was taken out, but passed as a separate resolution. Several amendments and resolutions designed for the enforcement of the Stamp Act were urged in vain by the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Grenville, with their party, Lords Lyttelton and Temple, and other sticklers for high prerogative. But the Ministry had a majority in the Commons of 275 against 167, and in the Lords, reckoning votes by proxy, of 105 against 71, the minority of peers recording a stiff protest. The King, who had wished for a modification, not a repeal, of the Stamp Act, was obliged to give his assent to its abrogation. This he lamented, in a private letter to Lord North, as "a fatal compliance, which has wounded the majesty of England, and planted thorns under my pillow."

The position of Ministers became daily more uncomfortable with their unforgiving Royal master. The Duke of Grafton resigned, and General Conway changed his post for another, to get rid of continual reproaches for his surrender to the

colonies. They succeeded, however, in obtaining one more boon for America-the permission to import Spanish bullion and Mexican cattle, by way of Jamaica and Dominica, which were constituted free ports. It was hoped that the agitation in America would presently subside. The colonists, indeed, had rejoiced at the news of the Stamp Act being repealed; and some provinces had voted for purchasing pictures or statues of their great friends in the British Parliament. But their fears of renewed attempts to overbear the provincial Legislatures were kept alive by the Declaratory Act, interpreted by such Government men as Bernard and Hutchinson. They were still further alarmed and irritated by the presence in the Ministry of Charles Townshend, and by the extraordinary manner in which he was permitted to talk about them.

ment.

That remarkable politician, a man of rare talents for conversation and social intrigue, as well as of smart and showy rhetoric in the debates of the House, was encouraged by the King's favour, and by the support of some influential peers, to behave as though he alone were to be leader of the GovernWhenever his colleagues, or even their chief, remonstrated with him for these egotistic displays, he would say that they dared not dismiss him, and he would do whatever he liked. There was a motion, on the 3rd of June, 1766, brought on by the Opposition party, to ask the King not to prorogue the session till they should have got satisfactory assurances that the rebellious dispositions of the colonists were altered. Charles Townshend, the Army Paymaster, replying from the Ministerial benches, took upon himself to promise that they would, in the coming recess, devise measures to supersede the Provincial Government Charters of America, and to provide a fixed revenue, so that its Royal Governors, judges, and attorneys might be rendered independent of the popular Assemblies. He contemptuously reprobated the " distracted madness," and the "odious, unpardonable resolves," of those subordinate colonial Legislatures. He hoped and intended to pursue a new system with regard to them; and if in this he should differ from the other members of the Administration, they must now take notice that he should withdraw from any further co-operation with persons of such narrow views in government. The Rockingham Ministry, discredited by want of consistency and unity, fell to pieces in August. There was a new official combination, of which the Duke of Grafton was nominal head. William Pitt, "the Great Commoner" of former years, accepting an Earldom of Chatham, now lent the name and shadow of his grand personality, with no

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active direction or control, to an Administration partly composed of men who differed from himself in the most important respects. It was an inglorious and a disastrous passage of his career, and of English political affairs. That Charles Townshend, of all persons at that particular juncture, should thus become, with Pitt's apparent sanction, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, thereby giving him the opportunity of striking another blow against the liberties of America this was one of the strangest and saddest turns in the history of the times. It is true that the new Ministry included Lord Chancellor Camden, General Conway, and Lord Shelburne, the last-named as Secretary for the Colonies; but whenever Townshend broke loose, as he did in the following year, his reckless and insolent self-conceit was sure to endanger the peace of the Empire. Lord Chatham, and those who thought with him, should never have allowed such a man to be in office with themselves.

But there were, in the meantime, still two existing causes of strife between the Crown and the American colonies, besides the Declaratory Act, which might have remained a harmless dead letter. These were, the clause in the Mutiny or Billeting Act, compelling the Legislatures of the provinces to supply particular articles for the use of troops in barracks; and the Parliamentary resolution ordering those Legislatures to give compensation for the damage of the late riots. Had a Royal Message been addressed to any of the Provincial Assemblies, in the old customary form, like those usually sent to the British House of Commons, asking either these small matters or anything else from their free suffrage, in the spirit of voluntary loyal service, it is possible that American tax-payers would have voted and paid a hundred times the sum required. It was the King's birthday, and the New York Assembly resolved to put up an equestrian statue of George III. in their city Bowling Green; while that misguided King and his evil counsellors in London were sullenly brooding over the check they had just encountered in their haughty attempt to snatch by force the subsidies which, on a frank appeal to loyalty and patriotism, might have been amply and instantly given. False pride was the ruin of their government in America, as it is apt to be the ruin of most human affairs.

The catastrophe was hastened by Governor Bernard in Massachusetts, of whose vexatious conduct we have already seen too much. Bitter disputes between him and the House of Representatives, upon various points of business and ceremony, were inevitable when they met, year