America is again in disorder; not indeed in the same degree as
formerly, nor anything like it.
formerly, nor anything like it.
Edmund Burke
How public credit must have suffered, need not say.
If the condition of the nation, at the close of our foreign war, was what this author represents such civil war would
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have been a bad couch, on which to repose our wea ried virtue. Far from being able to have entered into new plans of economy, we must have launched into a new sea, I fear a boundless sea, of expense. Such an addition of debt, with such a diminution of revenue and trade, would have left us in no want of a " State of the Nation " to aggravate the picture of
our distresses.
Our trade felt this to its vitals; and our then min
isters were not ashamed to say, that they sympa thized with the feelings of our merchants. The universal alarm of the whole trading body of Eng land, will never be laughed at by them as an ill grounded or a pretended panic. The universal desire of that body will always have great weight with them in every consideration connected with commerce : neither ought the opinion of that body to be slighted
the contemptuous and indecent lan guage of this author and his associates) in any con sideration whatsocver of revenue. Nothing amongst
us is more quickly or deeply affected by taxes of any kind than trade ; and if an American tax was a real relief to England, no part of the community would be sooner or more materially relieved by it than our merchants. But they well know that the trade of England must be more burdened by one penny raised in America, than by three in England; and if that penny be raised with the uneasiness, the discontent.
and the confusion of America, more than by ten.
If the opinion and wish of the landed interest is a motive, and it is a fair and just one, for taking away
a real and large revenue, the desire of the trading in terest of England ought to be a just ground for taking away a tax of little better than speculation,
(notwithstanding
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which was to be collected by a war, which was to be kept up with the perpetual discontent of those who were to be affected by and the value of whose produce even after the ordinary charges of collec tion, was very uncertain;* after the extraordinary, the dearest purchased revenue that ever was made
any nation.
These were some of the motives drawn from princi
ples of convenience for that repeal. When the object came to be more narrowly inspected, every motive
concurred. These colonies were evidently founded in subservience to the commerce of Great Britain. From this principle, the whole system of our laws concerning them became system of restriction. A double monopoly was established on the part of the parent country; monopoly of their whole im port, which to be altogether from Great Britain;
monopoly of all their export, which to be no where but to Great Britain, as far as can serve any purpose here. On the same idea was contrived that they should send all their products to us raw, and in their first state; and that they should take everything from us in the last stage of manufacture.
Were ever people under such circumstances,that people who were to export raw, and to receive
manufactured, and this, not few luxurious articles, but all articles, even to those of the grossest, most vulgar, and necessary consumption, people who were in the hands of general monopolist, were
4' It observable, that the partisans of American taxation, when they have mind to represent this tax as wonderfully beneficial to England, state as worth lO0,000l. year when they are to repre sent as very light on the Americans, dwindles to 60,0001. In deed very difficult to compute what its produce might have been
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ever such a people suspected of a possibility of becom ing a just object of revenue? All the ends of their foundation must be supposed utterly contradicted be fore they could become such an object. Every trade law we have made must have been eluded, and be come useless, before they could be in such a condi
tion.
The partisans of the new system, who, on most
occasions, take credit for full as much knowledge as they possess, think proper on this occasion to coun terfeit an extraordinary degree of ignorance, and in
of it to assert, "that the balance tween the colonies and Great Britain) is unknown,
and that no important conclusion can be drawn from premises so very uncertain. " * Now to what can this ignorance be owing ? were the navigation laws made, that this balance should be unknown? is it from the course of exchange that it is unknown, which all the world knows to be greatly and perpetually against the colonies? is it from the doubtful nature of the trade we carry on with the colonies? are not these
consequence
(be
? schemists well apprised that the colonists, particularly those of the northern provinces, import more from Great Britain, ten times more, than they send in re turn to us? that a great part of their foreign balance is and must be remitted to London? I shall be ready to admit that the colonies ought to be taxed to the
revenues of this country, when I know that they are out of debt to its commerce. This author will fur nish some ground to his theories, and communicate a discovery to the public, if he can show this by any medium. But he tells us that "their seas are cov
ered with ships, and their rivers floating with com ' " Considerations," p. 74.
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merce. " * This is true. But it is with our ships that these seas are covered ; and their rivers float with British commerce. The American merchants are our factors ; all in reality, most even in name. The Americans trade, navigate, cultivate, with English capitals; to their own advantage, to be sure; for without these capitals their ploughs would be stopped, and their ships wind-bound. But he who furnishes the capital must, on the whole, be the person princi pally benefited; the person who works upon it profits on his part too ; but he profits in a subordinate way, as our colonies do; that as the servant of wise and indulgent master, and no otherwise. We have all, except the peculium; without which even slaves will not labor.
If the author's principles, which are the common notions, be right, that the price of our manufactures
so greatly enhanced by our taxes then the Amer icans already pay in that way share of our imposi tions. He not ashamed to assert, that "France and China may be said, on the same principle, to bear part of our charges, for they consume our com
Was ever such method of reasoning heard of Do not the laws absolutely confine the colonies to buy from us, whether foreign nations sell cheaper or not? On what other idea are all our
prohibitions, regulations, guards, penalties, and for feitures, framed? To secure to us, not commer cial preference, which stands in need of no penalties to enforce it; finds its own way but to secure to us trade, which creature of law and institu tion. What has this to do with the principles of a foreign trade, which under no monopoly, and in
'* " Considerations," p. 79. Ibid. , 74.
modities. "'|'
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which we cannot raise the price of our goods, with out hazarding the demand for them? None but the authors of such measures could ever think of making use of such arguments.
Whoever goes about to reason on any part of the policy of this country with regard to America, upon the mere abstract principles of government, or even upon those of our own ancient constitution, will be often misled. Those who resort for arguments to the most respectable authorities, ancient or modern, or rest upon the clearest maxims, drawn from the ex
perience of other states and empires, will be liable to the greatest errors imaginable. The object is wholly new in the world. It is singular; it is grown up to this magnitude and importance within the memory of man ; nothing in history is parallel to it. All the reasonings about that are likely to be at all solid, must be drawn from its actual circumstances. In
this new system principle of commerce, of artificial commerce, must predominate. This commerce must be secured by multitude of restraints very alien from the spirit of liberty; and powerful authority must reside in the principal state, in order to enforce
them. But the people who are to be the subjects_of these restraints are descendants of Englishmen and of a high and free spirit. To hold over them gov ernment made up of nothing but restraints and pen alties, and taxes in the granting of which they can
have no share, will neither be wise nor long practica ble. People must be governed in manner agreea ble to their temper and disposition and men of free character and spirit must be ruled with, at least, some condescension to this spirit and this character. The British colonist must see something which will
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distinguish him from the colonists of other na tions.
Those reasonings, which infer from the many re straints under which we have already laid America, to our right to lay it under still more, and indeed un der all manner of restraints, are conclusive; conclu sive as to right; but the very reverse as to policy and practice. We ought rather to infer from our having laid the colonies under many restraints, that it is reasonable to compensate them by every indulgence that can by any means be reconciled to our interest. We have a great empire to rule, composed of a vast mass of heterogeneous governments, all more or less free and popular in their forms, all to be kept in peace, and kept out of conspiracy, with one another, all to be held in subordination to this country ; while the spirit of an extensive and intricate and trading interest pervades the whole, always qualifying, and often controlling, every general idea of constitution and government. It is a great and difficult object; and I wish we may possess wisdom and temper enough
to manage it as we ought. Its importance is infinite. I believe the reader will be struck, as I have been, with one singular fact. In the year 1704, but sixty five years ago, the whole trade with our plantations was but a few thousand pounds more in the export article, and a third less in the import, than that which we now carry on with the single island of Jamaica : --
396
Total English plantations in 1704 . . . . . .
Jamaica, 1767 . . .
From the same information I find that our dealing
Exports.
Imports.
b? 483,265 . 467,681 .
? 814,491 1,243,742
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with most of the European nations is but little in creased: these nations have been pretty much at a stand since that time, and we have rivals in their trade. This colony intercourse is a new world of commerce in a manner created ; it stands upon prin ciples of its own; principles hardly worth endanger ing for any little consideration of extorted revenue.
The reader sees, that I do not enter so fully into this matter as obviously I might. I have already been led into greater lengths than I intended. It is enough to say, that before the ministers of 1765 had determined to propose the repeal of the Stamp Act in Parliament, they had the whole of the American con stitution and commerce very fully before them. considered maturely ; they decided with wisdom : let me add, with firmness. For they resolved, as a pre
? liminary to that repeal, to assert in the fullest and least equivocal terms the unlimited legislative right of this country over its colonies; and, having done this, to propose the repeal, on principles, not of con stitutional right, but on those of expediency, of equity, of' lenity, and of the true interests present and future
of that great object for which alone the colonies were founded, navigation and commerce. This plan I say, required an uncommon degree of firmness, when we consider that some of those persons who might be of the greatest use in promoting the repeal, violently withstood the declaratory act; and they who agreed with administration in the principles of that law,
equally made, as well the reasons on which the de
claratory act itself stood, as those on which it was
opposed, grounds for an opposition to the repeal.
If the then ministry resolved first to declare the right, it was not from any opinion they entertained of
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its future use in regular taxation. Their opinions were full and declared against the ordinary use of such a power. But it was plain, that the general reasonings which were employed against that power went directly to our whole legislative right; and one part of it could not be yielded to such arguments, without a virtual surrender of all the rest. Besides, if that very specific power of levying money in the colonies were not retained as a sacred trust in the hands of Great Britain (to be used, not in the first instance for supply, but in the last exigence for con trol), it is obvious, that the presiding authority of Great Britain, as the head, the arbiter, and director of the whole empire, would vanish into an empty name, without operation or energy. With the habit ual exercise of such a power in the ordinary course of supply, no trace of freedom could remain to Amer ica. * If Great Britain were stripped of this right, every principle of unity and subordination in the empire was gone forever. Whether all this can be reconciled in legal speculation, is a matter of no consequence. It is reconciled in policy : and politics ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to human nature ; of which the reason is but a part, and by no means the greatest part.
Founding the repeal on this basis, it was judged
*4' I do not here enter into the unsatisfactory disquisition concern ing representation real or presumed. I only say, that a great people who have their property, without any reserve, in all cases, disposed of by another people, at an immense distance from them, will not think themselves in the enjoyment of freedom. It will be hard to show to those who are in such a state, which of the usual parts of the definition or description of a free people are applicable to them ; and it is neither pleasant nor wise to attempt to prove that they have no right to be comprehended in such a description.
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proper to lay before Parliament the whole detail of the American affairs, as fully as it had been laid be fore the ministry themselves. Ignorance of those af fairs had misled Parliament. Knowledge alone could 'bring it into the right road. Every paper of office was laid upon the table of the two Houses; every denomination of men, either of America, or connect
ed with it by ofiice, by residence, by commerce, by interest, even by injury; men of civil and military capacity, officers of the revenue, merchants, manu facturers of every species, and from every town in England, attended at the bar. Such evidence never was laid before Parliament. If an emulation arose among the ministers and members of Parliament, as the author rightly observes,* for the repeal of this act, as well as for the other regulations, it was not on the confident assertions, the airy speculations, or the vain promises of ministers, that it arose. It was the sense of Parliament on the evidence before them. No one so much as suspects that ministerial allure ments or terrors had any share in it.
Our author is very much displeased, that so much credit was given to the testimony of merchants. He has a habit of railing at them: and he may, if he pleases, indulge himself in it. It will not do great mischief to that respectable set of men. The sub stance of their testimony was, that their debts in America were very great: that the Americans de clined to pay them, or to renew their orders, whilst
this act continued: that, under these circumstances, they despaired of the recovery of their debts, or the renewal of their trade in that country: that they apprehended a general failure of mercantile credit.
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The manufacturers deposed to the same general pur pose, with this addition, that many of them had dis charged several of their artificers; and, if the law and the resistance to it should continue, must dis miss them all.
This testimony is treated with great contempt by our author. It must be, I suppose, because it was contradicted by the plain nature of things. Suppose then that the merchants had, to gratify this author,
'given a contrary evidence; and had deposed, that while America remained in a state of resistance, whilst four million of debt remained unpaid, whilst the course of justice was suspended for want of stamped paper, so that no debt could be recovered, whilst there was a total stop to trade, because every ship was subject to seizure for want of stamped clear ances, and while the colonies were to be declared in rebellion, and subdued by armed force, that in these circumstances they would still continue to trade cheer fully and fearlessly as before: would not such wit nesses provoke universal indignation for their folly or their wickedness, and be deservedly hooted from the bar: * would any human faith have given credit to
? * Here the author has a note altogether in his usual strain of ' rea soning ; he finds out that somebody, in the course of this multifarious evidence, had said, " that a very considerable part of the orders of 1765 transmitted from America had been afterwards suspended; but that in case the Stamp Act was repealed, those orders were to be ex ecuted in the present year, 1766 "; and that, on the repeal of the Stamp Act, " the exports to the colonies would be at least double the value of the exports of the past year. " He then triumphs exceedingly on their having fallen short of it on the state of the custom-house entries.
I
pose from these facts. He does not deny that all the orders which came from America subsequent to the disturbances of the Stamp Act were on the condition of that act being repealed; and he does not
do not well know what conclusion he draws applicable to his pur
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such assertions ? The testimony of the merchants was necessary for the detail, and to bring the matter honie to the feeling of the House; as to the general reasons, they spoke abundantly for themselves.
Upon these principles was the act repealed, and it produced all the good effect which was expected from it: quiet was restored; trade generally returned to its ancient channels; time and means were furnished for the better strengthening of government there, as well as for recovering, by judicious measures, the
affections of the people, had that ministry continued, or had a ministry succeeded with dispositions to im prove that opportunity.
assert that, notwithstanding that act should be enforced by a strong hand, still the orders would be executed. Neither does he quite ven ture to say that this decline of the trade in I766 was owing to the repeal. What does he therefore infer from favorable to the en forcement of that law'! It only comes to this, and no more; those merchants, who thought our trade would be doubled in the subse quent year, were mistaken in their speculations. So that the Stamp Act was not to be repealed unless this speculation of theirs wasa probable event. But was not repealed in order to double our trade
in that year, as everybody knows (whatever some merchants might have said), but lest in that year we should have no trade at all. The fact is, that during the greatest part of the year 1765, that is, until
about the month of October, when the accounts of the disturbances came thick upon us, the American trade went on as usual. Before this time, the Stamp Act could not afi'cct it. Afterwards, the mer chants fell into a. great consternation; general stagnation in trade ensued. But as soon as was known that the ministry favored the repeal of the Stamp Act, several of the bolder merchants ventured to
execute their orders; others more timid hung back; in this manner the trade continued in a state of dreadful fluctuation between the fears of those who had ventured, for the event of their boldness, and the anxiety of those whose trade was suspended, until the royal assent was finally given to the bill of repeal. That the trade of 1766 was
not equal to that of 1765, could not be owing to the repeal; arose VOL. 1. 26
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Such an administration did not succeed. Instead of profiting of that season of tranquillity, in the very next year theychose to return to measures of the very same nature with those which had been so sol emnly condemned; though upon a smaller scale. The effects have been correspondent.
America is again in disorder; not indeed in the same degree as
formerly, nor anything like it. Such good effects have attended the repeal of the Stamp Act, that the colonies have actually paid the taxes ; and they have
sought their redress (upon however improper princi
from quite different causes, of which the author seems not to be aware: lst, Our conquests during the war had laid open the trade of the French and Spanish West Indies to our colonies much more largely than they had ever enjoyed it; this continued for some time after the peace; but at length it was extremely contracted, and in some places reduced to nothing. Such in particular was the state of Jamaica. On the taking the Havannah all the stores of that island were emptied into that place, which produced unusual orders for goods, for supplying their own consumption, as well as for further speculations of trade. These ceasing, the trade stood on its own bottom. This is one cause of the diminished export to Jamaica; and not the childish idea of the author, of an impossible contraband from the opening of the ports. -- 2nd, The war had brought a great influx of cash into America, for the pay and provision of the troops; and this an unnatural increase of trade, which, as its cause failed, must in some degree return to its ancient and natural bounds. -- 3rd, When the merchants met from all parts, and compared their accounts, they were alarmed at the immensity of the debt due to them from America. They found that the Americans had over-traded their abilities. And, as they found too that several of them were capable of making the state of political events an excuse for their failure in commercial punctuality, many of our merchants in some degree cou tracted their trade from that moment. However, it is idle, in such an immense muss of trade, so liable to fluctuation, to infer anything from such a deficiency as one or even two hundred thousand pounds. In 1767, when the disturbances subsided, this deficiency was made up again.
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ples) not in their own violence, as formerly;* but in the experienced benignity of Parliament. They are not easy indeed, nor ever will be so, under this author's schemes of taxation; but we see no longer
the same general fury and confusion, which attended their resistance to the Stamp Act. The author may rail at the repeal, and those who proposed as he pleases. Those honest men suffer all his obloquy with pleasure, in the midst of the quiet which they have been the means of giving to their country and
would think his praises for their perseverance in prenicious scheme, very bad compensation for the disturbance of our peace, and the ruin of our com merce. Whether the return to the system of 1764, for raising revenue in America, the discontents which have ensued in consequence of the general
suspension of the assemblies in consequence of these discontents, the use of the military power, and the new and dangerous commissions which now hang
over them, will produce equally good eifects, great ly to be doubted. Never, fear, will this nation and the colonies fall back upon their true centre of grav ity, and natural point of repose, until the ideas of 1766 are resumed, and steadily pursued.
As to the regulations, great subject of the au thor's accusation, they are of two sorts; one of mixed nature, of revenue and trade the other sim ply relative to trade. With regard to the former
shall observe, that, in all deliberations concerning America, the ideas of that administration were prin gipally these to take trade as the primary end, and
but as very subordinate consideration.
Q The disturbances have been in Boston only; and were not in eongeqnenoe of the late duties.
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Where trade was likely to suffer, they did not hesi tate for an instant to prefer it to taxes, whose prod uce at best was contemptible, in comparison of the object which they might endanger. The other of their principles was, to suit the revenue to the ob
Where the difficulty of collection, from the nature of the country, and of the revenue establish ment, is so very notorious, it was their policy to hold out as few temptations to smuggling as possible, by keeping the duties as nearly as they could on a bal ance with the risk. On these principles they made many alterations in the port-duties of 1764, both in the mode and in the quantity. The author has not attempted to prove them erroneous. He complains enough to show that he is in an ill-humor, not that his adversaries have done amiss.
As to the regulations which were merely relative to commerce, many were then made ; and they were all made upon this principle, that many of the colo nies, and those some of the most abounding in people, were so situated as to have very few means of traflic with this country. It became therefore our interest to let them into as much foreign trade as could be given them without interfering with our own; and to se cure by every method the returns to the mother country. Without some such scheme of enlarge ment, it was obvious that any benefit we could expect from these colonies must be extremely limited. Ac cordingly many facilities were given to their trade with the foreign plantations, and with the southern parts of Europe. As to the confining the returns to this country, administration saw the mischief and folly of a plan of indiscriminate restraint. They
their remedy to that part where the disease
ject.
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existed, and to that only: on this idea they es tablished regulations, far more likely to check the dangerous, clandestine trade with Hamburg and Holland, than this author's friends, or any of their predecessors had ever done.
The friends of the author have a method surely a
little whimsical in all this sort of discussions.
have made an innumerable multitude of commercial regulations, at which the trade of England exclaimed with one voice, and many of which have been altered
on the unanimous opinion of that trade. Still they go on, just as before, in a sort of droning panegyric on themselves, talking of these regulations as prodi gies of wisdom; and, instead of appealing to those who are most affected and the best judges, they turn
round in a perpetual circle of their own reasenings and pretences ; they hand you over from one of their own pamphlets to another: " See," say they, "this demonstrated in the ' Regulations of the Colonies. ' " " See this satisfactorily proved in 'The Considera tions. "' By and by we shall have another: "See
another method in vindicating the opposite system. I refer to the petitions of merchants for these regu lations; to their thanks when they were obtained; and to the strong and grateful sense they have ever
since expressed of the benefits received 1mder that administration.
All administrations have in their commercial reg ulations been generally aided by the opinion of some merchants ; too frequently by that of a few, and those a. sort of favorites: they have been directed by the opinion of one or two merchants, who were to merit
in flatteries, and to be paid in contracts; who fre
They
? for this 'The State of the Nation. ' " I wish to take
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quently advised, not for the general good of trade, but for their private advantage. During the admin istration of which this author complains, the meetings of merchants upon the business of trade were numer ous and public; sometimes at the house of the Mar quis of Rockingham ; sometimes at Mr. Dowdeswell's; sometimes at Sir George Savile's, a house always open to every deliberation favorable to the liberty or the commerce of his country. Nor were these meetings confined to the merchants of London. Merchants and manufacturers were invited from all the consid erable towns in England. They conferred with the ministers and active members of Parliament. No private views, no local interests prevailed. Never were points in trade settled upon a larger scale of in
They who attended these meetings well know what ministers they were who heard the most patiently, who comprehended the most clearly, and who provided the most wisely. Let then this author and his friends still continue in possession of the practice of exalting their own abilities, in their pam phlets and in the newspapers. They never will per suade the public, that the merchants of England were in a general confederacy to sacrifice their own interests to those of North America, and to destroy the vent of' their own goods in favor of the manufac tures of France and Holland.
Had the friends of this author taken these means of information, his extreme terrors of contraband in the West India islands would have been greatly qui eted, and his objections to the opening of the ports would have ceased. He would have learned, from the most satisfactory analysis of the West India trade, that we have the advantage in every essential a. rti
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ele of it; and that almost every restriction on our commimication with our neighbors there, is a re striction unfavorable to ourselves.
Such were the principles that guided, and the au thority that sanctioned, these regulations. No man ever said, that, in the multiplicity of regulations made in the administration of their predecessors, none were useful; some certainly were so ; and I defy the author to show a commercial regulation of that pe riod, which he can prove, from any authority except
his own, to have a tendency beneficial to commerce, that has been repealed. So far were that ministry from being guided by a spirit of contradiction or of innovation.
The author's attack on that administration, for their neglect of our claims on foreign powers, is by much the most astonishing instance he has given, or that, I believe, any man ever did give, of an intrepid etfrontery. It relates to the Manilla ransom; to the Canada bills; and to the Russian treaty. Could one imagine, that these very things, which he thus chooses
to object to others, have been the principal subject of charge against his favorite ministry? Instead of clearing them of these charges, he appears not so much as to have heard of them; but throws them directly upon the administration which succeeded to
that of his friends.
It is not always very pleasant to be obliged to pro
duce the detail of this kind of transactions to the pub lic view. I will content myself therefore with giving a short state of facts, which, when the author chooses to contradict, he shall see proved, more, perhaps, to his conviction, than to his liking. The first fact then is, that the demand for the Manilla ransom had been
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in the author's favorite administration so neglected as to appear to have been little less than tacitly aban doned. At home, no countenar. ce was given to the claimants; and when it was mentioned in Parlia ment, the then leader did not seem, at least, a very sanguine advocate in favor of the claim. These things made it a matter of no small difficulty to resume and press that negotiation with Spain. However, so clear was oiu. right, that the then ministers resolved to re vive it ; and so little time was lost, that though that administration was not completed until the 9th of July, 1765, on the 20th of the following August, Gen eral Conway transmitted a strong and full remon strance on that subject to the Earl of Rochfort. The argument, on which the court of Madrid most relied, was the dereliction of that claim by the preceding ministers. However, it was still pushed with so much vigor, that the Spaniards, from a positive denial to pay, 0ifered to refer the demand to arbitration. That proposition was rejected ; and the demand "being still pressed, there was all the reason in the world to ex pect its being brought to a favorable issue; when it was thought proper to change the administration. Whether under their circumstances, and in the time they continued in power, more could be done, the reader will judge; who will hear with astonishment a charge of remissness from those very men, whose inactivity, to call it by no worse a name, laid the chief difficulties in the way of the revived negotiation.
As to the Canada bills, this author thinks proper to assert, "that the proprietors found themselves un der a necessity of compounding their demands upon the French court, and accepting terms which they had often rejected, and which the Earl of Halifax
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION. 409
had declared he would sooner forfeit his hand than sign. " * When I know that the Earl of Halifax says so, the Earl of Halifax shall have an answer; but I persuade myself that his Lordship has given no au thority for this ridiculous rant. In the mean time, I shall only speak of it as a common concern of that ministry.
In the first place, then, I observe, that a conven tion, for the liquidation of the Canada bills, was con cluded under the administration of 1766 ; when noth
ing was concluded under that of the favorites of this author.
2. This transaction was, in every step of
on in concert with the persons interested, and was terminated to their entire satisfaction. They would have acquiesced perhaps in terms somewhat lower than those which were obtained. The author in deed too kind to them. He will, however, let them
speak for themselves, and show what their own opin ion was of the measures pursued in their favor. 1' In what manner the execution of the convention has been since provided for, not my present business to examine.
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" They are happy in having found, in your zeal for the dignity
of this nation, the means of liquidating their claims, and of conclud ing with the court of France convention for the final satisfaction of their demands; and have given us commission, in their names, and on their behalf, most earnestly to eutreat your acceptance of their grateful acknowledgments. Whether they consider themselves as Britons, or as men more particularly profiting by your generous and spirited interposition, they see great reasons to be thankful, for having been supported by minister, in whose public affections, in whose wisdom and activity, both the national honor, and the interests of in dividuals, have been at once so well support/ed and secured. "'-- Thanks
of the Canada merchants to General Conway, London, April 28, 1766.
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3. The proprietors had absolutely despaired of be ing paid, at any time, any proportion of their de mand, until the change of that ministry. The 1ner chants were checked and discountenanced; they had often been told, by some in authority, of the cheap rate at which these Canada bills had been procured; yet the author can talk of the composition of them as a necessity induced by the change in administration. They found themselves indeed, before that change, under a necessity of hinting somewhat of bringing
the matter into Parliament; but they were soon si lenced, and put in mind of the fate which the New foundland business had there met with. Nothing struck them more than the strong contrast between the spirit, and method of proceeding, of the two ad ministrations. .
4. The Earl of Halifax never did, nor could, re fuse to sign this convention; because this convention, as it stands, never was before him. *
The author's last charge on that ministry, with regard to foreign affairs, is the Russian treaty of com merce, which the author thinks fit to assert, was con cluded " on terms the Earl of Buckinghamshire had refused to accept of, and which had been deemed by former ministers disadvantageous to the nation, and by the merchants unsafe and unprofitable. "1'
Both the assertions in this paragraph are equally groundless. The treaty then concluded by Sir George Macartney was not on the terms which the Earl of Buckinghamshire had refused. The Earl of Buckinghamshire never did refuse terms, because
* See the Convention itself, printed by Owen and Harrison, War wick-lane, 1766; particularly the articles two and thirteen.
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the business never came to the point of refusal, or acceptance; all that he did was, to receive the Rus sian project for a treaty of commerce, and to trans mit it to England. This was in November, 1764; and he left Petersburg the January following, be
fore he could even receive an answer from his own court. The conclusion of the treaty fell to his suc cessor. Whoever will be at the trouble to compare it with the treaty of 1734, will, I believe, confess, that, if the former ministers could have obtained such terms, they were criminal in not accepting them.
But the merchants " deemed them unsafe and un profitable. " What merchants? As no treaty ever was more maturely considered, so the opinion of the Russia merchants in London was all along ta. ken; and all the instructions sent over were in exact con formity to that opinion. Our minister there made no step without having previously consulted our mer chants residcnt in Petersburg, who, before the sign ing of the treaty, gave the most full and unanimous
testimony in its favor. In their address to our min ister at that court, among other things they say, " It may afford some additional satisfaction to your Excel lency, to receive a public acknowledgment of the en tire and unreserved approbation of every article in this treaty, from us who are so immediately and so nearly concerned in its consequences. " This was signed by the consul-general, and every British merchant in
Petersburg.
The approbation of those immediately concerned in
the consequences is nothing to this author. He and his friends have so much tenderness for people's in terests, and understand them so much better than
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they do themselves, that, whilst these politicians arc contending for the best of possible terms, the claim ants are obliged to go without any terms at all.
One of the first and justest complaints against the administration of the author's friends, was the want of vigor in their foreign negotiations. Their imme diate successors endeavored to correct that error, along with others; and there was scarcely a foreign court, in which the new spirit that had arisen was not sensibly felt, acknowledged, and sometimes com plained of. On their coming into administration, they found the demolition of Dunkirk entirely at a stand: instead of demolition, they found construc tion; for the French were then at work on the re pair of the jettees. On the remonstrances of General Conway, some parts of these jettees were immediately destroyed. The Duke of Richmond personally sur veyed the place, and obtained a fuller knowledge of its true state and condition than any of our minis ters had done; and, in consequence, had larger of fers from the Duke of Choiseul than had ever been received. But, as these were short of. our just ex pectations under the treaty, he rejected them. Our then ministers, knowing that, in their administration, the people"s minds were set at ease upon all the es sential points of public and private liberty, and that no project of theirs could endanger the concord of the empire, were under no restraint from pursuing every just demand upon foreign nations.
The author, towards the end of this work, falls in to reflections upon the state of public morals in this country: he draws use from this doctrine, by recom mending his friend to the king and the public, as an other Duke of Sully; and he concludes the whole performance with a very devout prayer.
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The prayers of politicians may sometimes be sin cere; and as this prayer is in substance, that the au thor, or his friends, may be soon brought into power, I have great reason to believe it is very much from the heart. It must be owned too that after he has drawn such a picture, such a shocking picture, of the state of this country, he has great faith in thinking the means he prays for sufficient to relieve us: after the character he has given of its inhabitants of all ranks and classes, he has great charity in caring
much about them; and indeed no less hope, in being of opinion, that such a detestable nation can ever be come the care of Providence. He has not even found five good men in our devoted city.
He talks indeed of men of virtue and ability. But where are his men of virtue and ability to be found? Are they in the present administration? Never were a set of people more blackened by this author. Are they among the party of those (no small body) who
adhere to the system of 1766? These it is the great
? of this book to calumniate. Are they the persons who acted with his great friend, since the change in 1762, to his removal in 1765? Scarcely any of these are now out of employment; and we are
He observes, that the virtue of the most exemplary prince that ever swayed a sceptre " can never warm or illuminate the body of his people, if foul mirrors are placed so near him as to refract and dissipate the
rays at their first emanation. " * Without observing * Page 46.
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in possession of his desideratum. Yet Ithink he hardly means to select, even some of the highest of them, as examples fit for the reformation of a corrupt world.
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upon the propriety of this metaphor, or asking how mirrors come to have lost their old quality of reflect ing, and to have acquired that of refracting, and dissi pating rays, and how far their foulness will account for this change; the remark itself is common and true: no less true, and equally surprising from him, is that which immediately precedes it: " It is in vain to endeavor to check the progress of irreligion and licentiousness, by punishing such crimes in om indi vidual, if others equally culpable are rewarded with the honors and emoluments of the state. " * I am not in the secret of the author's manner of writing; but it appears to me, that he must intend these reflec tions as a satire upon the administration of his happy years. Were ever the honors and emoluments of the state more lavishly squandered upon persons scanda lous in their lives than during that period ? In these scandalous lives, was there anything more scandalous than the mode of punishing one culpable individual? In that individual, is anything more culpable than his having been seduced by the example of some of those very persons by whom he was thus persecuted?
The author is so eager to attack others, that he pro vides but indifferently for his own defence.
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have been a bad couch, on which to repose our wea ried virtue. Far from being able to have entered into new plans of economy, we must have launched into a new sea, I fear a boundless sea, of expense. Such an addition of debt, with such a diminution of revenue and trade, would have left us in no want of a " State of the Nation " to aggravate the picture of
our distresses.
Our trade felt this to its vitals; and our then min
isters were not ashamed to say, that they sympa thized with the feelings of our merchants. The universal alarm of the whole trading body of Eng land, will never be laughed at by them as an ill grounded or a pretended panic. The universal desire of that body will always have great weight with them in every consideration connected with commerce : neither ought the opinion of that body to be slighted
the contemptuous and indecent lan guage of this author and his associates) in any con sideration whatsocver of revenue. Nothing amongst
us is more quickly or deeply affected by taxes of any kind than trade ; and if an American tax was a real relief to England, no part of the community would be sooner or more materially relieved by it than our merchants. But they well know that the trade of England must be more burdened by one penny raised in America, than by three in England; and if that penny be raised with the uneasiness, the discontent.
and the confusion of America, more than by ten.
If the opinion and wish of the landed interest is a motive, and it is a fair and just one, for taking away
a real and large revenue, the desire of the trading in terest of England ought to be a just ground for taking away a tax of little better than speculation,
(notwithstanding
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which was to be collected by a war, which was to be kept up with the perpetual discontent of those who were to be affected by and the value of whose produce even after the ordinary charges of collec tion, was very uncertain;* after the extraordinary, the dearest purchased revenue that ever was made
any nation.
These were some of the motives drawn from princi
ples of convenience for that repeal. When the object came to be more narrowly inspected, every motive
concurred. These colonies were evidently founded in subservience to the commerce of Great Britain. From this principle, the whole system of our laws concerning them became system of restriction. A double monopoly was established on the part of the parent country; monopoly of their whole im port, which to be altogether from Great Britain;
monopoly of all their export, which to be no where but to Great Britain, as far as can serve any purpose here. On the same idea was contrived that they should send all their products to us raw, and in their first state; and that they should take everything from us in the last stage of manufacture.
Were ever people under such circumstances,that people who were to export raw, and to receive
manufactured, and this, not few luxurious articles, but all articles, even to those of the grossest, most vulgar, and necessary consumption, people who were in the hands of general monopolist, were
4' It observable, that the partisans of American taxation, when they have mind to represent this tax as wonderfully beneficial to England, state as worth lO0,000l. year when they are to repre sent as very light on the Americans, dwindles to 60,0001. In deed very difficult to compute what its produce might have been
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ever such a people suspected of a possibility of becom ing a just object of revenue? All the ends of their foundation must be supposed utterly contradicted be fore they could become such an object. Every trade law we have made must have been eluded, and be come useless, before they could be in such a condi
tion.
The partisans of the new system, who, on most
occasions, take credit for full as much knowledge as they possess, think proper on this occasion to coun terfeit an extraordinary degree of ignorance, and in
of it to assert, "that the balance tween the colonies and Great Britain) is unknown,
and that no important conclusion can be drawn from premises so very uncertain. " * Now to what can this ignorance be owing ? were the navigation laws made, that this balance should be unknown? is it from the course of exchange that it is unknown, which all the world knows to be greatly and perpetually against the colonies? is it from the doubtful nature of the trade we carry on with the colonies? are not these
consequence
(be
? schemists well apprised that the colonists, particularly those of the northern provinces, import more from Great Britain, ten times more, than they send in re turn to us? that a great part of their foreign balance is and must be remitted to London? I shall be ready to admit that the colonies ought to be taxed to the
revenues of this country, when I know that they are out of debt to its commerce. This author will fur nish some ground to his theories, and communicate a discovery to the public, if he can show this by any medium. But he tells us that "their seas are cov
ered with ships, and their rivers floating with com ' " Considerations," p. 74.
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merce. " * This is true. But it is with our ships that these seas are covered ; and their rivers float with British commerce. The American merchants are our factors ; all in reality, most even in name. The Americans trade, navigate, cultivate, with English capitals; to their own advantage, to be sure; for without these capitals their ploughs would be stopped, and their ships wind-bound. But he who furnishes the capital must, on the whole, be the person princi pally benefited; the person who works upon it profits on his part too ; but he profits in a subordinate way, as our colonies do; that as the servant of wise and indulgent master, and no otherwise. We have all, except the peculium; without which even slaves will not labor.
If the author's principles, which are the common notions, be right, that the price of our manufactures
so greatly enhanced by our taxes then the Amer icans already pay in that way share of our imposi tions. He not ashamed to assert, that "France and China may be said, on the same principle, to bear part of our charges, for they consume our com
Was ever such method of reasoning heard of Do not the laws absolutely confine the colonies to buy from us, whether foreign nations sell cheaper or not? On what other idea are all our
prohibitions, regulations, guards, penalties, and for feitures, framed? To secure to us, not commer cial preference, which stands in need of no penalties to enforce it; finds its own way but to secure to us trade, which creature of law and institu tion. What has this to do with the principles of a foreign trade, which under no monopoly, and in
'* " Considerations," p. 79. Ibid. , 74.
modities. "'|'
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which we cannot raise the price of our goods, with out hazarding the demand for them? None but the authors of such measures could ever think of making use of such arguments.
Whoever goes about to reason on any part of the policy of this country with regard to America, upon the mere abstract principles of government, or even upon those of our own ancient constitution, will be often misled. Those who resort for arguments to the most respectable authorities, ancient or modern, or rest upon the clearest maxims, drawn from the ex
perience of other states and empires, will be liable to the greatest errors imaginable. The object is wholly new in the world. It is singular; it is grown up to this magnitude and importance within the memory of man ; nothing in history is parallel to it. All the reasonings about that are likely to be at all solid, must be drawn from its actual circumstances. In
this new system principle of commerce, of artificial commerce, must predominate. This commerce must be secured by multitude of restraints very alien from the spirit of liberty; and powerful authority must reside in the principal state, in order to enforce
them. But the people who are to be the subjects_of these restraints are descendants of Englishmen and of a high and free spirit. To hold over them gov ernment made up of nothing but restraints and pen alties, and taxes in the granting of which they can
have no share, will neither be wise nor long practica ble. People must be governed in manner agreea ble to their temper and disposition and men of free character and spirit must be ruled with, at least, some condescension to this spirit and this character. The British colonist must see something which will
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distinguish him from the colonists of other na tions.
Those reasonings, which infer from the many re straints under which we have already laid America, to our right to lay it under still more, and indeed un der all manner of restraints, are conclusive; conclu sive as to right; but the very reverse as to policy and practice. We ought rather to infer from our having laid the colonies under many restraints, that it is reasonable to compensate them by every indulgence that can by any means be reconciled to our interest. We have a great empire to rule, composed of a vast mass of heterogeneous governments, all more or less free and popular in their forms, all to be kept in peace, and kept out of conspiracy, with one another, all to be held in subordination to this country ; while the spirit of an extensive and intricate and trading interest pervades the whole, always qualifying, and often controlling, every general idea of constitution and government. It is a great and difficult object; and I wish we may possess wisdom and temper enough
to manage it as we ought. Its importance is infinite. I believe the reader will be struck, as I have been, with one singular fact. In the year 1704, but sixty five years ago, the whole trade with our plantations was but a few thousand pounds more in the export article, and a third less in the import, than that which we now carry on with the single island of Jamaica : --
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Total English plantations in 1704 . . . . . .
Jamaica, 1767 . . .
From the same information I find that our dealing
Exports.
Imports.
b? 483,265 . 467,681 .
? 814,491 1,243,742
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with most of the European nations is but little in creased: these nations have been pretty much at a stand since that time, and we have rivals in their trade. This colony intercourse is a new world of commerce in a manner created ; it stands upon prin ciples of its own; principles hardly worth endanger ing for any little consideration of extorted revenue.
The reader sees, that I do not enter so fully into this matter as obviously I might. I have already been led into greater lengths than I intended. It is enough to say, that before the ministers of 1765 had determined to propose the repeal of the Stamp Act in Parliament, they had the whole of the American con stitution and commerce very fully before them. considered maturely ; they decided with wisdom : let me add, with firmness. For they resolved, as a pre
? liminary to that repeal, to assert in the fullest and least equivocal terms the unlimited legislative right of this country over its colonies; and, having done this, to propose the repeal, on principles, not of con stitutional right, but on those of expediency, of equity, of' lenity, and of the true interests present and future
of that great object for which alone the colonies were founded, navigation and commerce. This plan I say, required an uncommon degree of firmness, when we consider that some of those persons who might be of the greatest use in promoting the repeal, violently withstood the declaratory act; and they who agreed with administration in the principles of that law,
equally made, as well the reasons on which the de
claratory act itself stood, as those on which it was
opposed, grounds for an opposition to the repeal.
If the then ministry resolved first to declare the right, it was not from any opinion they entertained of
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its future use in regular taxation. Their opinions were full and declared against the ordinary use of such a power. But it was plain, that the general reasonings which were employed against that power went directly to our whole legislative right; and one part of it could not be yielded to such arguments, without a virtual surrender of all the rest. Besides, if that very specific power of levying money in the colonies were not retained as a sacred trust in the hands of Great Britain (to be used, not in the first instance for supply, but in the last exigence for con trol), it is obvious, that the presiding authority of Great Britain, as the head, the arbiter, and director of the whole empire, would vanish into an empty name, without operation or energy. With the habit ual exercise of such a power in the ordinary course of supply, no trace of freedom could remain to Amer ica. * If Great Britain were stripped of this right, every principle of unity and subordination in the empire was gone forever. Whether all this can be reconciled in legal speculation, is a matter of no consequence. It is reconciled in policy : and politics ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to human nature ; of which the reason is but a part, and by no means the greatest part.
Founding the repeal on this basis, it was judged
*4' I do not here enter into the unsatisfactory disquisition concern ing representation real or presumed. I only say, that a great people who have their property, without any reserve, in all cases, disposed of by another people, at an immense distance from them, will not think themselves in the enjoyment of freedom. It will be hard to show to those who are in such a state, which of the usual parts of the definition or description of a free people are applicable to them ; and it is neither pleasant nor wise to attempt to prove that they have no right to be comprehended in such a description.
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proper to lay before Parliament the whole detail of the American affairs, as fully as it had been laid be fore the ministry themselves. Ignorance of those af fairs had misled Parliament. Knowledge alone could 'bring it into the right road. Every paper of office was laid upon the table of the two Houses; every denomination of men, either of America, or connect
ed with it by ofiice, by residence, by commerce, by interest, even by injury; men of civil and military capacity, officers of the revenue, merchants, manu facturers of every species, and from every town in England, attended at the bar. Such evidence never was laid before Parliament. If an emulation arose among the ministers and members of Parliament, as the author rightly observes,* for the repeal of this act, as well as for the other regulations, it was not on the confident assertions, the airy speculations, or the vain promises of ministers, that it arose. It was the sense of Parliament on the evidence before them. No one so much as suspects that ministerial allure ments or terrors had any share in it.
Our author is very much displeased, that so much credit was given to the testimony of merchants. He has a habit of railing at them: and he may, if he pleases, indulge himself in it. It will not do great mischief to that respectable set of men. The sub stance of their testimony was, that their debts in America were very great: that the Americans de clined to pay them, or to renew their orders, whilst
this act continued: that, under these circumstances, they despaired of the recovery of their debts, or the renewal of their trade in that country: that they apprehended a general failure of mercantile credit.
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The manufacturers deposed to the same general pur pose, with this addition, that many of them had dis charged several of their artificers; and, if the law and the resistance to it should continue, must dis miss them all.
This testimony is treated with great contempt by our author. It must be, I suppose, because it was contradicted by the plain nature of things. Suppose then that the merchants had, to gratify this author,
'given a contrary evidence; and had deposed, that while America remained in a state of resistance, whilst four million of debt remained unpaid, whilst the course of justice was suspended for want of stamped paper, so that no debt could be recovered, whilst there was a total stop to trade, because every ship was subject to seizure for want of stamped clear ances, and while the colonies were to be declared in rebellion, and subdued by armed force, that in these circumstances they would still continue to trade cheer fully and fearlessly as before: would not such wit nesses provoke universal indignation for their folly or their wickedness, and be deservedly hooted from the bar: * would any human faith have given credit to
? * Here the author has a note altogether in his usual strain of ' rea soning ; he finds out that somebody, in the course of this multifarious evidence, had said, " that a very considerable part of the orders of 1765 transmitted from America had been afterwards suspended; but that in case the Stamp Act was repealed, those orders were to be ex ecuted in the present year, 1766 "; and that, on the repeal of the Stamp Act, " the exports to the colonies would be at least double the value of the exports of the past year. " He then triumphs exceedingly on their having fallen short of it on the state of the custom-house entries.
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pose from these facts. He does not deny that all the orders which came from America subsequent to the disturbances of the Stamp Act were on the condition of that act being repealed; and he does not
do not well know what conclusion he draws applicable to his pur
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such assertions ? The testimony of the merchants was necessary for the detail, and to bring the matter honie to the feeling of the House; as to the general reasons, they spoke abundantly for themselves.
Upon these principles was the act repealed, and it produced all the good effect which was expected from it: quiet was restored; trade generally returned to its ancient channels; time and means were furnished for the better strengthening of government there, as well as for recovering, by judicious measures, the
affections of the people, had that ministry continued, or had a ministry succeeded with dispositions to im prove that opportunity.
assert that, notwithstanding that act should be enforced by a strong hand, still the orders would be executed. Neither does he quite ven ture to say that this decline of the trade in I766 was owing to the repeal. What does he therefore infer from favorable to the en forcement of that law'! It only comes to this, and no more; those merchants, who thought our trade would be doubled in the subse quent year, were mistaken in their speculations. So that the Stamp Act was not to be repealed unless this speculation of theirs wasa probable event. But was not repealed in order to double our trade
in that year, as everybody knows (whatever some merchants might have said), but lest in that year we should have no trade at all. The fact is, that during the greatest part of the year 1765, that is, until
about the month of October, when the accounts of the disturbances came thick upon us, the American trade went on as usual. Before this time, the Stamp Act could not afi'cct it. Afterwards, the mer chants fell into a. great consternation; general stagnation in trade ensued. But as soon as was known that the ministry favored the repeal of the Stamp Act, several of the bolder merchants ventured to
execute their orders; others more timid hung back; in this manner the trade continued in a state of dreadful fluctuation between the fears of those who had ventured, for the event of their boldness, and the anxiety of those whose trade was suspended, until the royal assent was finally given to the bill of repeal. That the trade of 1766 was
not equal to that of 1765, could not be owing to the repeal; arose VOL. 1. 26
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Such an administration did not succeed. Instead of profiting of that season of tranquillity, in the very next year theychose to return to measures of the very same nature with those which had been so sol emnly condemned; though upon a smaller scale. The effects have been correspondent.
America is again in disorder; not indeed in the same degree as
formerly, nor anything like it. Such good effects have attended the repeal of the Stamp Act, that the colonies have actually paid the taxes ; and they have
sought their redress (upon however improper princi
from quite different causes, of which the author seems not to be aware: lst, Our conquests during the war had laid open the trade of the French and Spanish West Indies to our colonies much more largely than they had ever enjoyed it; this continued for some time after the peace; but at length it was extremely contracted, and in some places reduced to nothing. Such in particular was the state of Jamaica. On the taking the Havannah all the stores of that island were emptied into that place, which produced unusual orders for goods, for supplying their own consumption, as well as for further speculations of trade. These ceasing, the trade stood on its own bottom. This is one cause of the diminished export to Jamaica; and not the childish idea of the author, of an impossible contraband from the opening of the ports. -- 2nd, The war had brought a great influx of cash into America, for the pay and provision of the troops; and this an unnatural increase of trade, which, as its cause failed, must in some degree return to its ancient and natural bounds. -- 3rd, When the merchants met from all parts, and compared their accounts, they were alarmed at the immensity of the debt due to them from America. They found that the Americans had over-traded their abilities. And, as they found too that several of them were capable of making the state of political events an excuse for their failure in commercial punctuality, many of our merchants in some degree cou tracted their trade from that moment. However, it is idle, in such an immense muss of trade, so liable to fluctuation, to infer anything from such a deficiency as one or even two hundred thousand pounds. In 1767, when the disturbances subsided, this deficiency was made up again.
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ples) not in their own violence, as formerly;* but in the experienced benignity of Parliament. They are not easy indeed, nor ever will be so, under this author's schemes of taxation; but we see no longer
the same general fury and confusion, which attended their resistance to the Stamp Act. The author may rail at the repeal, and those who proposed as he pleases. Those honest men suffer all his obloquy with pleasure, in the midst of the quiet which they have been the means of giving to their country and
would think his praises for their perseverance in prenicious scheme, very bad compensation for the disturbance of our peace, and the ruin of our com merce. Whether the return to the system of 1764, for raising revenue in America, the discontents which have ensued in consequence of the general
suspension of the assemblies in consequence of these discontents, the use of the military power, and the new and dangerous commissions which now hang
over them, will produce equally good eifects, great ly to be doubted. Never, fear, will this nation and the colonies fall back upon their true centre of grav ity, and natural point of repose, until the ideas of 1766 are resumed, and steadily pursued.
As to the regulations, great subject of the au thor's accusation, they are of two sorts; one of mixed nature, of revenue and trade the other sim ply relative to trade. With regard to the former
shall observe, that, in all deliberations concerning America, the ideas of that administration were prin gipally these to take trade as the primary end, and
but as very subordinate consideration.
Q The disturbances have been in Boston only; and were not in eongeqnenoe of the late duties.
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Where trade was likely to suffer, they did not hesi tate for an instant to prefer it to taxes, whose prod uce at best was contemptible, in comparison of the object which they might endanger. The other of their principles was, to suit the revenue to the ob
Where the difficulty of collection, from the nature of the country, and of the revenue establish ment, is so very notorious, it was their policy to hold out as few temptations to smuggling as possible, by keeping the duties as nearly as they could on a bal ance with the risk. On these principles they made many alterations in the port-duties of 1764, both in the mode and in the quantity. The author has not attempted to prove them erroneous. He complains enough to show that he is in an ill-humor, not that his adversaries have done amiss.
As to the regulations which were merely relative to commerce, many were then made ; and they were all made upon this principle, that many of the colo nies, and those some of the most abounding in people, were so situated as to have very few means of traflic with this country. It became therefore our interest to let them into as much foreign trade as could be given them without interfering with our own; and to se cure by every method the returns to the mother country. Without some such scheme of enlarge ment, it was obvious that any benefit we could expect from these colonies must be extremely limited. Ac cordingly many facilities were given to their trade with the foreign plantations, and with the southern parts of Europe. As to the confining the returns to this country, administration saw the mischief and folly of a plan of indiscriminate restraint. They
their remedy to that part where the disease
ject.
'"-"$r'*
? applied
? ? ? ON TIIE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION. 405
existed, and to that only: on this idea they es tablished regulations, far more likely to check the dangerous, clandestine trade with Hamburg and Holland, than this author's friends, or any of their predecessors had ever done.
The friends of the author have a method surely a
little whimsical in all this sort of discussions.
have made an innumerable multitude of commercial regulations, at which the trade of England exclaimed with one voice, and many of which have been altered
on the unanimous opinion of that trade. Still they go on, just as before, in a sort of droning panegyric on themselves, talking of these regulations as prodi gies of wisdom; and, instead of appealing to those who are most affected and the best judges, they turn
round in a perpetual circle of their own reasenings and pretences ; they hand you over from one of their own pamphlets to another: " See," say they, "this demonstrated in the ' Regulations of the Colonies. ' " " See this satisfactorily proved in 'The Considera tions. "' By and by we shall have another: "See
another method in vindicating the opposite system. I refer to the petitions of merchants for these regu lations; to their thanks when they were obtained; and to the strong and grateful sense they have ever
since expressed of the benefits received 1mder that administration.
All administrations have in their commercial reg ulations been generally aided by the opinion of some merchants ; too frequently by that of a few, and those a. sort of favorites: they have been directed by the opinion of one or two merchants, who were to merit
in flatteries, and to be paid in contracts; who fre
They
? for this 'The State of the Nation. ' " I wish to take
? ? ? 406 OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
quently advised, not for the general good of trade, but for their private advantage. During the admin istration of which this author complains, the meetings of merchants upon the business of trade were numer ous and public; sometimes at the house of the Mar quis of Rockingham ; sometimes at Mr. Dowdeswell's; sometimes at Sir George Savile's, a house always open to every deliberation favorable to the liberty or the commerce of his country. Nor were these meetings confined to the merchants of London. Merchants and manufacturers were invited from all the consid erable towns in England. They conferred with the ministers and active members of Parliament. No private views, no local interests prevailed. Never were points in trade settled upon a larger scale of in
They who attended these meetings well know what ministers they were who heard the most patiently, who comprehended the most clearly, and who provided the most wisely. Let then this author and his friends still continue in possession of the practice of exalting their own abilities, in their pam phlets and in the newspapers. They never will per suade the public, that the merchants of England were in a general confederacy to sacrifice their own interests to those of North America, and to destroy the vent of' their own goods in favor of the manufac tures of France and Holland.
Had the friends of this author taken these means of information, his extreme terrors of contraband in the West India islands would have been greatly qui eted, and his objections to the opening of the ports would have ceased. He would have learned, from the most satisfactory analysis of the West India trade, that we have the advantage in every essential a. rti
? formation.
? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
ele of it; and that almost every restriction on our commimication with our neighbors there, is a re striction unfavorable to ourselves.
Such were the principles that guided, and the au thority that sanctioned, these regulations. No man ever said, that, in the multiplicity of regulations made in the administration of their predecessors, none were useful; some certainly were so ; and I defy the author to show a commercial regulation of that pe riod, which he can prove, from any authority except
his own, to have a tendency beneficial to commerce, that has been repealed. So far were that ministry from being guided by a spirit of contradiction or of innovation.
The author's attack on that administration, for their neglect of our claims on foreign powers, is by much the most astonishing instance he has given, or that, I believe, any man ever did give, of an intrepid etfrontery. It relates to the Manilla ransom; to the Canada bills; and to the Russian treaty. Could one imagine, that these very things, which he thus chooses
to object to others, have been the principal subject of charge against his favorite ministry? Instead of clearing them of these charges, he appears not so much as to have heard of them; but throws them directly upon the administration which succeeded to
that of his friends.
It is not always very pleasant to be obliged to pro
duce the detail of this kind of transactions to the pub lic view. I will content myself therefore with giving a short state of facts, which, when the author chooses to contradict, he shall see proved, more, perhaps, to his conviction, than to his liking. The first fact then is, that the demand for the Manilla ransom had been
? ? ? ? 408 OBSERVATIONS ON A LATE PUBLICATION
in the author's favorite administration so neglected as to appear to have been little less than tacitly aban doned. At home, no countenar. ce was given to the claimants; and when it was mentioned in Parlia ment, the then leader did not seem, at least, a very sanguine advocate in favor of the claim. These things made it a matter of no small difficulty to resume and press that negotiation with Spain. However, so clear was oiu. right, that the then ministers resolved to re vive it ; and so little time was lost, that though that administration was not completed until the 9th of July, 1765, on the 20th of the following August, Gen eral Conway transmitted a strong and full remon strance on that subject to the Earl of Rochfort. The argument, on which the court of Madrid most relied, was the dereliction of that claim by the preceding ministers. However, it was still pushed with so much vigor, that the Spaniards, from a positive denial to pay, 0ifered to refer the demand to arbitration. That proposition was rejected ; and the demand "being still pressed, there was all the reason in the world to ex pect its being brought to a favorable issue; when it was thought proper to change the administration. Whether under their circumstances, and in the time they continued in power, more could be done, the reader will judge; who will hear with astonishment a charge of remissness from those very men, whose inactivity, to call it by no worse a name, laid the chief difficulties in the way of the revived negotiation.
As to the Canada bills, this author thinks proper to assert, "that the proprietors found themselves un der a necessity of compounding their demands upon the French court, and accepting terms which they had often rejected, and which the Earl of Halifax
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION. 409
had declared he would sooner forfeit his hand than sign. " * When I know that the Earl of Halifax says so, the Earl of Halifax shall have an answer; but I persuade myself that his Lordship has given no au thority for this ridiculous rant. In the mean time, I shall only speak of it as a common concern of that ministry.
In the first place, then, I observe, that a conven tion, for the liquidation of the Canada bills, was con cluded under the administration of 1766 ; when noth
ing was concluded under that of the favorites of this author.
2. This transaction was, in every step of
on in concert with the persons interested, and was terminated to their entire satisfaction. They would have acquiesced perhaps in terms somewhat lower than those which were obtained. The author in deed too kind to them. He will, however, let them
speak for themselves, and show what their own opin ion was of the measures pursued in their favor. 1' In what manner the execution of the convention has been since provided for, not my present business to examine.
* Page 24.
" They are happy in having found, in your zeal for the dignity
of this nation, the means of liquidating their claims, and of conclud ing with the court of France convention for the final satisfaction of their demands; and have given us commission, in their names, and on their behalf, most earnestly to eutreat your acceptance of their grateful acknowledgments. Whether they consider themselves as Britons, or as men more particularly profiting by your generous and spirited interposition, they see great reasons to be thankful, for having been supported by minister, in whose public affections, in whose wisdom and activity, both the national honor, and the interests of in dividuals, have been at once so well support/ed and secured. "'-- Thanks
of the Canada merchants to General Conway, London, April 28, 1766.
? carried
? ? a
a
_it is
1'
it, is
? 410
OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
3. The proprietors had absolutely despaired of be ing paid, at any time, any proportion of their de mand, until the change of that ministry. The 1ner chants were checked and discountenanced; they had often been told, by some in authority, of the cheap rate at which these Canada bills had been procured; yet the author can talk of the composition of them as a necessity induced by the change in administration. They found themselves indeed, before that change, under a necessity of hinting somewhat of bringing
the matter into Parliament; but they were soon si lenced, and put in mind of the fate which the New foundland business had there met with. Nothing struck them more than the strong contrast between the spirit, and method of proceeding, of the two ad ministrations. .
4. The Earl of Halifax never did, nor could, re fuse to sign this convention; because this convention, as it stands, never was before him. *
The author's last charge on that ministry, with regard to foreign affairs, is the Russian treaty of com merce, which the author thinks fit to assert, was con cluded " on terms the Earl of Buckinghamshire had refused to accept of, and which had been deemed by former ministers disadvantageous to the nation, and by the merchants unsafe and unprofitable. "1'
Both the assertions in this paragraph are equally groundless. The treaty then concluded by Sir George Macartney was not on the terms which the Earl of Buckinghamshire had refused. The Earl of Buckinghamshire never did refuse terms, because
* See the Convention itself, printed by Owen and Harrison, War wick-lane, 1766; particularly the articles two and thirteen.
1' Page 23.
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? ? ? ? on run PRESENT srarn or THE NATION.
the business never came to the point of refusal, or acceptance; all that he did was, to receive the Rus sian project for a treaty of commerce, and to trans mit it to England. This was in November, 1764; and he left Petersburg the January following, be
fore he could even receive an answer from his own court. The conclusion of the treaty fell to his suc cessor. Whoever will be at the trouble to compare it with the treaty of 1734, will, I believe, confess, that, if the former ministers could have obtained such terms, they were criminal in not accepting them.
But the merchants " deemed them unsafe and un profitable. " What merchants? As no treaty ever was more maturely considered, so the opinion of the Russia merchants in London was all along ta. ken; and all the instructions sent over were in exact con formity to that opinion. Our minister there made no step without having previously consulted our mer chants residcnt in Petersburg, who, before the sign ing of the treaty, gave the most full and unanimous
testimony in its favor. In their address to our min ister at that court, among other things they say, " It may afford some additional satisfaction to your Excel lency, to receive a public acknowledgment of the en tire and unreserved approbation of every article in this treaty, from us who are so immediately and so nearly concerned in its consequences. " This was signed by the consul-general, and every British merchant in
Petersburg.
The approbation of those immediately concerned in
the consequences is nothing to this author. He and his friends have so much tenderness for people's in terests, and understand them so much better than
411
? ? ? ? 412 OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
they do themselves, that, whilst these politicians arc contending for the best of possible terms, the claim ants are obliged to go without any terms at all.
One of the first and justest complaints against the administration of the author's friends, was the want of vigor in their foreign negotiations. Their imme diate successors endeavored to correct that error, along with others; and there was scarcely a foreign court, in which the new spirit that had arisen was not sensibly felt, acknowledged, and sometimes com plained of. On their coming into administration, they found the demolition of Dunkirk entirely at a stand: instead of demolition, they found construc tion; for the French were then at work on the re pair of the jettees. On the remonstrances of General Conway, some parts of these jettees were immediately destroyed. The Duke of Richmond personally sur veyed the place, and obtained a fuller knowledge of its true state and condition than any of our minis ters had done; and, in consequence, had larger of fers from the Duke of Choiseul than had ever been received. But, as these were short of. our just ex pectations under the treaty, he rejected them. Our then ministers, knowing that, in their administration, the people"s minds were set at ease upon all the es sential points of public and private liberty, and that no project of theirs could endanger the concord of the empire, were under no restraint from pursuing every just demand upon foreign nations.
The author, towards the end of this work, falls in to reflections upon the state of public morals in this country: he draws use from this doctrine, by recom mending his friend to the king and the public, as an other Duke of Sully; and he concludes the whole performance with a very devout prayer.
*1. -IF-qn
? ? ? ? on run PRESENT srarn or rnn NATION. 413
The prayers of politicians may sometimes be sin cere; and as this prayer is in substance, that the au thor, or his friends, may be soon brought into power, I have great reason to believe it is very much from the heart. It must be owned too that after he has drawn such a picture, such a shocking picture, of the state of this country, he has great faith in thinking the means he prays for sufficient to relieve us: after the character he has given of its inhabitants of all ranks and classes, he has great charity in caring
much about them; and indeed no less hope, in being of opinion, that such a detestable nation can ever be come the care of Providence. He has not even found five good men in our devoted city.
He talks indeed of men of virtue and ability. But where are his men of virtue and ability to be found? Are they in the present administration? Never were a set of people more blackened by this author. Are they among the party of those (no small body) who
adhere to the system of 1766? These it is the great
? of this book to calumniate. Are they the persons who acted with his great friend, since the change in 1762, to his removal in 1765? Scarcely any of these are now out of employment; and we are
He observes, that the virtue of the most exemplary prince that ever swayed a sceptre " can never warm or illuminate the body of his people, if foul mirrors are placed so near him as to refract and dissipate the
rays at their first emanation. " * Without observing * Page 46.
'
purpose
in possession of his desideratum. Yet Ithink he hardly means to select, even some of the highest of them, as examples fit for the reformation of a corrupt world.
? ? ~I
upon the propriety of this metaphor, or asking how mirrors come to have lost their old quality of reflect ing, and to have acquired that of refracting, and dissi pating rays, and how far their foulness will account for this change; the remark itself is common and true: no less true, and equally surprising from him, is that which immediately precedes it: " It is in vain to endeavor to check the progress of irreligion and licentiousness, by punishing such crimes in om indi vidual, if others equally culpable are rewarded with the honors and emoluments of the state. " * I am not in the secret of the author's manner of writing; but it appears to me, that he must intend these reflec tions as a satire upon the administration of his happy years. Were ever the honors and emoluments of the state more lavishly squandered upon persons scanda lous in their lives than during that period ? In these scandalous lives, was there anything more scandalous than the mode of punishing one culpable individual? In that individual, is anything more culpable than his having been seduced by the example of some of those very persons by whom he was thus persecuted?
The author is so eager to attack others, that he pro vides but indifferently for his own defence.
