For months the ministers paid no heed to American discontent, save that Conway wrote rather feebly to some of the colonial governors with reference to the disorders. Parliament was not summoned until December 17, and though the king's speech directed attention to the late occurrences in the colonies, the ministers had not decided on a policy. They ascertained Pitt's opinion, and so gained a lead. When parliament assembled in January, 1766, after the recess, Pitt spoke warmly against any attempt to enforce the stamp act. He avowed his distrust of the government in a characteristic fashion: "Pardon me, gentlemen," said he, bowing towards the ministers, "confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom; youth is the season of credulity". He thought that he saw "traces of an overruling influence," a dark saying which probably referred to Newcastle.[72] While he asserted the sovereignty of Great Britain over the colonies in legislation, he maintained that parliament had no right to tax them; taxation, according to him, was "no part of the governing or legislative power". He regarded the tax as an infringement of constitutional liberty, and rejoiced that the Americans had resisted it. Such a matter, he urged, was not to be decided by text-books; he had not come down to the house "armed with the statute-book, doubled down with dog's-ears, to defend the cause of liberty". America might be crushed, but if she fell, she would fall like Samson, embracing and pulling down the pillars of the state, the constitution, along with her. Let them bind her commerce and restrict her manufactures, but abstain from demanding money without the consent of her people. His words had a great effect; they put enforcement out of the question.