NOTE 50, p. 202.—A curious adaptation from Virgil. Ecl. iv., 26. If, while he was changing _parentis_ to _parentum_ he had omitted _poterit_, he would at least have left a good Latin sentence. But Burke quoted from memory and was often inexact, not only in the choice of words, but also in pronunciation. Harford relates that he was once indulging in some very severe animadversions on Lord North’s management of the public purse. While this philippic was going on, North appeared to be half-asleep, “heaving backward and forward like a great turtle.” Burke introduced the aphorism: _magnum vectígal est parsimonia_, putting a wrong accent on the second word and calling it _véctigal_. The scholarly ear of North was sufficiently attentive to catch the mistake, and he shouted out _vectígal_. “I thank the noble lord,” responded Burke, “for the correction, more particularly as it gives me the opportunity to repeat what he greatly needs to have reiterated upon him.” He then thundered out: “_Magnum vectígal est parsimonia_.” NOTE 51, p. 206.—In allusion to the well-known story told at length by Valerius Maximus, lib. v., 7; and in briefer form by Pliny, “Nat. Hist.,” vii., 36. NOTE 52, p. 208.—The whole of this magnificent passage was founded upon very substantial facts. Massachusetts had 183 vessels, carrying 13,820 tons in the North, and 120 vessels, carrying 14,026 tons in the South. It was in 1775, the very year of Burke’s speech, that English ships were first fitted out to follow the Americans into the fisheries of the South Seas. See _Quarterly Review_, lxiii., 318. NOTE 53, p. 211.—At the time of the great struggle against the Stuarts. In the _Annual Register_, for 1775, p. 14, Burke says: “The American freeholders at present are nearly, in point of condition, what the English yeomen were of old when they rendered us formidable to all Europe, and our name celebrated throughout the world. The former, from many obvious circumstances, are more enthusiastical lovers of liberty than even our yeomen were.” NOTE 54, p. 213.—The differences here indicated are fully explained in Marshall’s “American Colonies,” Story “On the Constitution,” Lodge’s “English Colonies in America,” and more briefly in vol. iv., chap, vi., of Bancroft. It is noteworthy that it was not in the most democratic forms of government that the most violent resolutions were passed. See _Ann. Reg._ for 1775, p. 6. NOTE 55, p. 218.—General Gage had prohibited the _calling_ of town meetings after August 1, 1774. The meetings held before August 1st were adjourned over from time to time, and consequently there was no need of “_calling_” meetings. Gage complained that by such means they could keep their meetings alive for ten years. See Bancroft, vii., chap. viii., and _Ann. Reg._, 1775, p. 11. NOTE 56, p. 219.—The “_ministrum fulminis alitem_” of Horace, bk. iv., ode i.