imposing customs' duties upon several articles imported into the American colonies,-the The Stamp produce of these duties being reserved for Act, 1765. the defence of the colonies themselves.1 At the same time, the Commons passed a resolution, that it may be proper to charge certain stamp duties' in America, as the foundation of future legislation. The colonists, accustomed to perpetual interference with their trade, did not dispute the right of the mother country to tax their imports: but they resolved to evade the impost, as far as possible, by the encouragement of native manufactures. The threatened Stamp Act, however, they immediately denounced as an invasion of the rights of Englishmen, who could not be taxed otherwise than by their representatives. But, deaf to their remonstrances, Mr. Grenville, in the next session, persisted in his stamp bill. It attracted little notice in this country: the people could bear with complacency the taxation of others; and never was there a Parliament more indifferent to constitutional principles, and popular rights. The colonists, however, and their agents in this country, remonstrated against the proposal.

Their opinion had been invited by ministers; and that it might be expressed, a year's delay had been agreed upon. Yet when they petitioned against

14 Geo. III. c. 15. Mr. Bancroft regards a measure, introduced by Mr. Townshend in the previous session for lowering some of the prohibitory duties, and making them productive, as the commencement of the plan for the taxation of America; but that measure merely dealt with existing duties. It was not until 1764 that any new issue was raised with the colonies.-Hist. of American Revolution, ii. 102.

2 March 10th, 1764. Parl. Hist., xv. 1427; Grahame's Hist., iv. 179.

Unrepresented communieven without a hearing.

the bill, the Commons refused to entertain their petitions, under a rule, by no means binding on their discretion, which excluded petitions against a tax proposed for the service of the year.' An arbitrary temper and narrow pedantry prevailed over justice and sound policy. ties were to be taxed, The bill was passed with little opposition : 2 but the colonists combined to resist its execution. Mr. Pitt had been ill in bed when the Stamp Act was passed: but no sooner were the discontents in America brought into discussion, than he condemned taxation without representation; and counselled the immediate repeal of the obnoxious Act. When in this House,' he said, 'we give and grant, we grant what is our own. But in an American tax, what do we do? We, Your Majesty's Commons for Great Britain, give and grant to Your Majesty—what ? Our own property? No: we give and grant to Your Majesty the property of Your Majesty's Commons of America.' At the same time, he proposed to save the honour of England by an act declaratory of the general legislative authority of Parliament over the colonies.3 Lord Rockingham, who had succeeded Mr. Grenville, alarmed by the unanimity and violence of the colonists, readily caught at Mr. Pitt's

This monstrous rule, or usage, which set at naught the right of petition on the most important matters of public concern, dates from the Revolution; and was not relinquished until 1842.-Hatsell, Prec., iii. 226; May's Proceedings and Usage of Parliament, 6th ed., 516.

2 Parl. Hist., xvi. 34. We might as well have hindered the sun's setting,' wrote Franklin.—Bancroft, ii. 281.

Parl. Hist., xvi. 93; Life of Lord Chatham, i. 427.

the Stamp

Mr. Pitt had

suggestion. The Stamp Act was repealed, notwithstanding the obstinate resistance of the king Repeal of and his friends, and of Mr. Grenville and Act. the supporters of the late ministry. desired expressly to except from the declaratory act the right of taxation, without the consent of the colonists: but the crown lawyers and Lord Mansfield denied the distinction between legislation and the imposition of taxes, which that great constitutional statesman had forcibly pointed out; and the bill was introduced without that exception. In the House of Lords, Lord Camden, the only sound constitutional lawyer of his age, supported with remarkable power the views of Mr. Pitt: but the bill was passed in its original shape, and maintained the unqualified right of England to make laws for the colonies. In the same session some of the import duties imposed in 1764 were also repealed, and others modified.3 The colonists were appeased by these concessions; and little regarded the abstract terms of the declaratory act. They were, indeed, encouraged in a spirit of independence, by their triumph over the English Parliament: but their loyalty was as yet unshaken.1

The error of Mr. Grenville had scarcely been re

1 Walpole's Mem., ii. 258, 285, &c.; Rockingham Mem., i. 291295; ii. 250, 294.

26 Geo. III. c. 11, 12; Parl. Hist., xvi. 163, 177, &c.; Walpole's Mem., ii. 277-298, 304-307, &c.; Rockingham Mem., i. 282-293; Bancroft, ii. 459-473; Chatham Corr., ii. 375.

3 6 Geo. III. c. 52.

+ Stedman's Hist., i. 48, et seq.; Bancroft's Hist. of the American Revolution, ii. 523; Burke's Speech on American Taxation: see also Lord Macaulay's Life of Lord Chatham, Essays; Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices (Lord Camden).

Mr. Charles Townshend's colonial taxes, 1767.

paired, when an act of political fatuity caused an irreparable breach between the mother country and her colonies. Lord Chatham, by his timely intervention, had saved England her colonies; and now his ill-omened administration was destined to lose them. His witty and accomplished, but volatile and incapable Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Charles Townshend, having lost half a million of his ways and means, by an adverse vote of the Commons on the land tax,1 ventured, with incredible levity, to repeat the disastrous experiment of colonial taxation. The Americans, to strengthen their own case against the Stamp Act, had drawn a distinction between internal and external taxation, a distinction plausible and ingenious, in the hands of so dexterous a master of political fence as Dr. Franklin,2 but substantially without foundation. Both kinds of taxes were equally paid by the colonists themselves; and if it was their birthright to be taxed by none but representatives of their own, this doctrine clearly comprehended customs, no less than excise. But, misled by the supposed distinction which the Americans themselves had raised, Mr. Townshend proposed a variety of small colonial customs' duties, -on glass, on paper, on painters' colours, and lastly, on tea. The estimated produce of these paltry taxes amounted to no more than 40,000l. Lord Chatham would have scornfully put aside a scheme, at once so contemptible and impolitic, and so plainly in violation of the principles for which he had him2 Parl. Hist., xvi. 144.

1 Supra, Vol. II. 101.

self recently contended: but he lay stricken and helpless, while his rash lieutenant was rushing headlong into danger. Lord Camden would have arrested the measure in the Cabinet; but standing alone, in a disorganised ministry, he accepted under protest a scheme, which none of his colleagues approved. However rash the financier, however weak the compliance of ministers, Parliament fully shared the fatal responsibility of this measure. It was passed with approbation, and nearly in silence.2 Mr. Townshend did not survive to see the mischief he had done: but his colleagues had soon to deplore their error. The colonists resisted the import duties, as they had resisted the Stamp Act; and, a second time, ministers were forced to recede from their false position. But their retreat was effected All repealed awkwardly, and with a bad grace. They duties. yielded to the colonists, so far as to give up the general scheme of import duties: but persisted in continuing the duties upon tea.3

but the tea

cance of the

This miserable remnant of the import duties was not calculated to afford a revenue exceed- Insignifiing 12,000l.; and its actual proceeds were tea duties. reduced to 300l. by smuggling, and the determination of the colonists not to consume an article to which the obnoxious impost was attached. The insignificance of the tax, while it left ministers without justification for continuing such a cause of irri

1 See Lord Camden's Statement.-Parl. Hist., xviii. 1222. 27 Geo. III. c. 46; Rockingham Mem., ii. 75; Bancroft's Hist. of the American Revolution, iii. 83, et seq.

10 Geo. III. c. 17; Parl. Hist., xvi. 853; Cavendish Deb., ii. 484.