of a punishment, and to make it acknowledge at the fame time that none had been incurred; the mockery, they faid, was too grefs to be endured. That however dangerous the measure of introducing foreign troops was, the precedent to be eftablished by the bill was infinitely more fo, as it was obtaining the fanction of parliament for that violation of the laws, and dangerous infraction of the constitution. That the minif ter came before the houfe in a fituation, no other had ever ventured; he first violated the laws of his country, and then had the effrontery to come to parliament, not to claim its indulgence, but to make it teftify, that what he had done was perfectly right and unexceptionable.

It can scarcely pafs obfervation, that the minifter found himself frequently obliged to vary his ground in the courfe of this bufi. nefs. In its beginning, to prevent the defection of the court part of the country gentlemen, after an appearance of firmnefs which bordered upon obftinacy, he fuddenly feemed to conform to their ideas, in agreeing to the bringing in of the Indemnity Bill. When the great point of the addrefs was gained, he feemed totally to for. get the matter, and did not with to be reminded of it. Their importunity at length growing troublefome, and many great points ftill remaining to be obtained, he feemed to coincide in their opinion, and accordingly brought in the bill; but took care to conftruct it in fuch a manner, as that it fhould answer purposes extremely differing from thofe which they intended. Since that time, he had

continually varied his tone, from firmnefs to conceffion, and from conceffion to firmnefs, in proportion to the objects he had in view, and to the apparent complexion and prefent temper of the house. Having now nearly carried all the great points of the feffion through, and most of the country gentlemen being abfent, he returned to his original doctrine, from which he would not recede in the fmallest degree, and declared, that as far as his vote went, he would not fuffer the alteration of a tittle in the bill;-he wanted no indemnity, and let thofe who were in love with the measure, take the bill as it was, or not at all. However innocent the motives were, it certainly afforded matter of uneasiness to the friends of government, and to thofe who were the most remote from party views and prejudices, to fee the court fo cager, at this critical time, to establish a precedent for the introduction of foreign troops without the confent of parliament, and fo anxious to prevent any thing like a cenfure which might in future be a clog to fuch a measure.

The amendment was rejected upon a divifion, by a majority of 130 to 58; and the bill accordingly paffed in its original ftate.

In pursuance of the inftructions from the city of 27th. London to its reprefentatives, Mr. Alderman Oliver made a motion for an addrefs to his ma jefty, to impart to the house the original authors and advisers of feveral of the late measures (which were paffed into laws, and were now fpecified) relative to America, before those measures were propofed in parliament. This [*H] 2

bufinefs

bufinefs was undertaken without the approbation of, or any concert with, oppofition in general, who difliked it upon many accounts, particularly, as being ineffective in its nature, very unparliamentary in its form and fpirit, as not being founded upon any fact, and as offering a juftification to minifters, by taking away their refponfibility, and fuppofing their obnoxious measures to be the acts of other, or of unknown, perfons. The minister turned it into ridicule, with much wit and fpirit; and the oppofition, in order to get rid of it without a flat negative, called for the order of the day, and failing in that, they moved the previous queftion; but the minifters being determined that the motion fhould not pafs without reprobation, prevented that efcape by a majority of 156 to 16; and the main queftion being then put, the motion was rejected upon a divifion, by a majority of 163 to 10 only.

The difcouragement arifing from the difappointment which he experienced in the preceding feffion, was not fufficient to deter Dec. 7th. Mr. Hartley from a fi. milar attempt in the prefent, with a view of bringing about a reconciliation between Great Britain and her colonies. His plan of accommodation, which in its ground and principle was much the fame with his former, was principally formed on the general language of adminiftration and that of the Congrefs, which, he was of opinion, did not fo much difagree as was commonly imagined; the former growing every day more apparently indifferent about taxation, and the latter ad

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mitting a general fuperintendency in parliament.

The object of his propofitions were, firft, an addrefs to his majefty for a fufpenfion of hoftilities; a bill to enable the province of Maffachufets bay to elect an affembly and council, according to their late charter; a teft bill, establishing a right of trial by jury, in all criminal cafes, to all faves in North America, for annulling all laws in any province repugnant thereto, and to be registered by the refpective affemblies of all the colonies. Upon a compliance with this teft of obedience, the operation of the two following bills was to commence, viz. a bill for a permanent reconciliation, by repealing all the laws fince the year 1763, and thereby placing the colonies in the exact fituation in which they ftood at that time; and a general indemnity bill. The whole was concluded with a motion for an addrefs to the throne, that when quiet was reftored, it might be proper to fend letters of requifition, as ufual, to the feveral colonies, for fuch fupplies as were neceflary for government and defence. This propofition feems to have been carried on nearly as little in concert with the generality of the oppofition as the former.

The minifters treated those conciliatory propofitions with fome degree of inattention and indiffer. ence. They faid, in general, that the main fubject of thefe motions had been already frequently and fully difcuffed; that until the plan propofed from the throne was tried, and its effects known, it was nugatory, and wafting the time of the house, to break in upon them with fresh propofals; that the

fenfe

fenfe of a great majority of the houfe had been frequently declared against the principles of thefe refolutions; that they held out no fecurity, and were accompanied with no folemn fanction, that if they were acceded to on our part, they would be accepted by the Americans; that the claim of taxation virtually included the claim of fovereignty, it being impoffible to relinquish the one without furrendering the other; and that the idea of obtaining a productive revenue from America had never been abandoned.

The debate was of courfe fhort, and the question being put upon the first resolution, it was rejected upon a divifion by a majority of 123 to 21; the other refolutions received a negative without a divifion.

con

The Indemnity Bill, after all the trouble it had given to the minifter and to the country gentlemen in the House of Commons, was thrown out by the Lords. It was oppofed in that houfe by the Marquis of Rockingham, who demned it in very ftrong terms, upon the direct variance between the preamble and the enacting claufes; he faid, that the holding out of an indemnity, while it af ferted that the perfons indemnified were guilty of no offence, would render it a difgrace to our laws and legislation; and that it befides, under that colour of indemnity, gave a fanction to a glaring violation both of the law and conftitution, in placing foreign troops in our garrisons. As the Lords in adminiftration agreed with the noble Marquis upon the point of impropriety or abfurdity in its ftructure, and did not think an in

demnity at all neceffary, they readily coincided in rejecting the bill, fo that it was thrown out without either defence or division.

The Prohibitory Bill met with great oppofition in the Houfe of Lords, almost every part of it undergoing a specific difcuffion. Upon the motion for 15th. its commitment after the fecond reading, the debates were long, able, and animated; and fome very warm and pointed perfonal altercation and animadverfion took place. The Lords in oppofition combated the bill upon every ground of policy, juftice, and expediency. On the former they obferved, that by confidering the Americans as foreign nation, and declaring war on them in that character, this bill drew the line of feparation, chalked out the way, and prepared their minds, for that independency which they were charged with affecting; that the English, on both fides of the ocean, were now to be taught, by act of parliament, to confider themfelves as feparate and diftinct nations; as nations fufceptible of general hoftility, and proper parties for mutual declarations of war, and treaties of peace. That by the promifcuous and indifcriminate rapine of the property of friends and foes, authorized by the bill, it must compleat what yet remained to be compleated, of union in North America against the authority of parliament; and that the friends of government in that country, whofe numbers and power have been fo much boasted of by adminiftration, will now plainly fee, that parliament is much more inclined to diftrefs, than able or willing to protect.

Its impolicy and injuftice with refpect to the Weft Indies, was reprefented to be ftill more glaring. Here it inflicts a much more certain and fevere punishment upon a people not even fufpected of crime or offence, than it is capable of extending to the most refractory of the Americans. An act of the British parliament is called in as a fupplementary aid, and an extenfion of the authority of the Congrefs, in that meafure, which, of all others adopted by that body, was the most reprehenfible and unjuftifiable on their fide, and the moft pernicious to us, the cutting off their ufual fupplies of provifions and neceffaries from thofe unhappy islands. The measure of confifcating thofe veffels, which, to avoid all breach of the laws, and all illicit commerce, were laid up by the owners in their own docks and harbours, their waiting to be brought into ufe upon a return of peace and better times, was equally reprobated.

But of all the parts of this law, none was treated with so much feverity in that houfe, or excited fuch apparent indignation, as that, claufe, by which all those who were taken on board the American veffels, were indifcriminately compelled, without diftinction of perfons, to ferve as common failors in our ships of war. This claufe was marked with every poffible ftigma, and was defcribed by the Lords in their proteft, as a refinement in tyranny," which, in a fentence worfe than death, obliges the unhappy men who fhall be made captives in this predatory war to bear arms against their families, kindred, friends, and country; and after being plundered themselves,

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to become accomplices in plunder ing their brethren." The injuftice and cruelty of this claufe, they faid, was ftill heightened, by ren dering the unhappy perfons who were thus compelled, fubject to the articles of war, and liable to be fhot for defertion. They patheti. cally reprefented the miferies to which perfons in this melancholy fituation, particularly thofe of the better fort, would be fubject, from the infolence and outrage of thofe with whom they were obliged to ferve, who being themselves deftitute of liberal principles and education, would ftill continue to confider and treat them as rebels; nor did they confider it as the fmalleft part of the calamity, that they would be frequently obliged to be lookers on, when the fpoils of their honeft industry, and the natural fupport of their fober families, was fquandered in riot and debauchery, by those profligate comrades, with whom they were at the fame time obliged to live, and to ferve. Upon the whole, this fituation was faid to be the last degree of wretchednefs and indig nity, to which human nature could be fubjected; and that a cruelty, unknown to the moft favage nations, was thus to be practised by Englishmen on Englishmen. They infifted, that no man could be defpoiled of his goods as a foreign enemy, and at the fame time obliged to ferve the ftate as a citizen, upon any principle of law or right, known among civilized nations. That fuch a compulsion upon prifoners as the prefent, is unknown in any cafe of war or rebellion; and the only examples of the fort that can be produced, mult be found among pirates the out

laws