Representative British Orations Volume 1 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
History
Representative British Orations Volume 1 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
Speeches, addresses, etc., English
The Americans will have no interest contrary to the grandeur and glory
of England, when they are not oppressed by the weight of it; and
they will rather be inclined to respect the acts of a superintending
Legislature, when they see them the acts of that power which is itself
the security, not the rival, of their secondary importance. In this
assurance my mind most perfectly acquiesces, and I confess I feel not
the least alarm from the discontents which are to arise from putting
people at their ease; nor do I apprehend the destruction of this empire
from giving, by an act of free grace and indulgence, to two millions of
my fellow-citizens, some share of those rights upon which I have always
been taught to value myself.
It is said, indeed, that this power of granting, vested in American
assemblies, would dissolve the unity of the empire, which was preserved
entire, although Wales, and Chester, and Durham were added to it.
Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do not know what this unity means, nor has it
ever been heard of, that I know, in the constitutional policy of this
country. The very idea of subordination of parts excludes this notion
of simple and undivided unity. England is the head, but she is not
the head and the members too. Ireland has ever had from the beginning
a separate, but not an independent Legislature, which, far from
distracting, promoted the union of the whole. Every thing was sweetly
and harmoniously disposed through both islands for the conservation
of English dominion and the communication of English liberties. I
do not see that the same principles might not be carried into twenty
islands, and with the same good effect. This is my model with regard to
America, as far as the internal circumstances of the two countries are
the same. I know no other unity of this empire than I can draw from its
example during these periods, when it seemed to my poor understanding
more united than it is now, or than it is likely to be by the present
methods.
But since I speak of these methods, I recollect, Mr. Speaker, almost
too late, that I promised, before I finished, to say something of the
proposition of the noble Lord [Lord North] on the floor, which has
been so lately received, and stands on your journals. I must be deeply
concerned whenever it is my misfortune to continue a difference with
the majority of this House. But as the reasons for that difference are
my apology for thus troubling you, suffer me to state them in a very
few words. I shall compress them into as small a body as I possibly
can, having already debated that matter at large when the question was
before the committee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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