ing them with the odious appellation of rebels, what is their language, what their protestation? Read, in the name of heaven, the late petition of the Congress to the King, and you will find "they are ready and willing, as they have ever been, to demonstrate their loyalty by exerting their utmost efforts in granting supplies and raising forces when constitutionally required." And yet we hear it vociferated by some inconsiderate individuals that the Americans wish to abolish the Navigation Act; that they intend to throw off the supremacy of Great Britain. But would to God those assertions were not rather a provocation than the truth! They ask nothing, for such are the words of their petition, but for peace, liberty, and safety. They wish not a diminution of the royal prerogative; they solicit not any new right. They are ready, on the contrary, to defend this prerogative, to maintain the royal authority, and to draw closer the bonds. of their connection with Great Britain. But our ministers, perhaps to punish others for their own faults, are sedulously endeavoring, not only to relax those powerful ties, but to dissolve and sever them forever. Their address represents the Province of Massachusetts as in a state of actual rebellion. The other provinces are held out to our indignation, as aiding and abetting. Many arguments have been employed by some learned gentlemen among us to comprehend them all in the same offense, and to involve them all in the same proscription.

Whether their present state is that of rebellion, or of a fit and just resistance to unlawful acts of power, to our attempts to rob them of their property and liberties, as they imagine, I shall not declare. But I well know what will follow,3 nor, however strange and harsh it may appear to some, shall I hesitate to announce it, that I may not be accused hereafter of having failed in my duty to my country, on so grave an occasion, and at the

approach of such direful calamities. Know, then, a successful resistance is a revolution, not a rebellion; rebellion, indeed, appears on the back of a flying enemy, but revolution flames on the breastplate of the victorious warrior. Who can tell whether in consequence of this day's violent and mad address to his majesty, the scabbard may not be thrown away by them, as well as by us; and whether in a few years the independent Americans may not celebrate the glorious era of the Revolution of 1775, as we do that of 1688? The generous effort of our forefathers for freedom, heaven crowned with success, or their noble blood had dyed our scaffolds, like that of Scottish traitors and rebels; and the period of our history which does us the most honor would have been deemed a rebellion against the lawful authority of the prince, not a resistance authorized by all the laws of God and man, not the expulsion of a detested tyrant.

I can no more comprehend the policy than acknowledge the justice of your deliberations. Where is your force, what are your armies, how are they to be recruited, and how supported? The single Province of Massachusetts has at this moment thirty thousand men, well trained and disciplined, and can bring in case of emergency ninety thousand into the field; and, doubt not they will do it, when all that is dear is at stake, when forced to defend their liberty and property against their cruel oppressors. The right honorable gentleman with the blue riband * assures us that ten thousand of our troops and four Irish regiments will make their brains turn in the head a little, and strike them aghast with terror. But where does the author of this exquisite scheme propose to send his army? Boston, perhaps, you may lay in ashes, or it may be made a strong garrison; but the province will be lost to you. You will hold Boston as you hold Gibraltar, in the midst of a country which will not be yours; the whole Ameri

can continent will remain in the power of your enemies. Where your fleets and armies are stationed, the possession will be secured while they continue; but all the rest will be lost. In the great scale of empire, you will decline, I fear, from the decision of this day; and the Americans will rise in independence, to power, to all the greatness of the most renowned states-for they build on the solid basis of general public liberty.

How according to Wilkes were the Americans provoked to rebellion?

What rights did Wilkes believe the colonies wished England to grant them?

What reason did Wilkes give for believing that the Americans would gain independence and rise to great power?

Did his prophecy prove true in all details?

To what motives did Wilkes appeal in this speech?

CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA

March 22, 1775

As the objectionable measures suggested by King George III were formulated by Lord North's ministry. and passed one after another, discontent in America steadily increased. With a fine sarcasm one legislative body after another declared that the colonies would train soldiers in order to save the Mother Country the necessity of taxing Americans to provide troops for their defense. In nearly all the provinces companies of soldiers had in fact been equipped and drilled.

In Parliament Pitt, Wilkes, Barre, and others had espoused the cause of America in vain. The King and his ministry were determined, in the face of all expediency, to assert their right to tax America. The most that Lord North was willing to concede was that any colony should be exempted from taxation if it had granted for the common defense of the Empire an amount "according to the condition, circumstances, and situation of such colony" satisfactory to the Government. Although this bill conferred on the assemblies merely the form of making grants and still retained for Parliament the right of taxation, the measure was intended to be conciliatory. As Parliament seemed for the moment inclined to consider a gentler policy, Burke seized the opportunity to offer, on March 22, 1775, conciliatory resolutions that met adequately nearly all the constitutional demands of the

colonists. The partition of the Empire would probably have been avoided had not the House of Commons by a vote of 270 to 78 rejected his proposals.

Members of Parliament who listened to Burke's words were not at the time sufficiently impressed to lend their votes, but many, after perusal of the printed speech, when it was too late, were won over to his views. Fox, an orator of the first rank and a contemporary of Burke was so thoroughly convinced of the justice and soundness of Burke's plan that he urged Members of Parliament "to peruse the Speech on Conciliation again and again, to study it, to imprint it on their minds, to impress it on their hearts." Although Burke's speech failed to secure for Americans the rights to which as English subjects they were entitled, it recorded in imperishable form the principles of a just and generous policy that must hereafter form a part of all humane and enlightened government.

CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA

EDMUND BURKE

I. I HOPE,1 Sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity of the Chair, your good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence toward human frailty. You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending which strongly engages their hopes and fears should be somewhat inclined to superstition. As I came into the House, full of anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my infinite surprise, that the grand penal bill, by which we had passed sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is to be returned to us from the other House. I do confess I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. I look upon it as a sort of providential favor by which we are put once more in possession of our deliberative capacity, upon a business so very questionable