XII. 1774 but are not to be driven. Have fome indulgence to CHAP. your own likeness; refpect their sturdy English virtue; retract your odious exertions of authority; and remember, that the first step towards making them contribute to your wants, is to reconcile them to your government." Mr. Rofe Fuller, venerable for his years and parliamentary experience, and for independence of character, by no means uniformly an opponent to government, and indeed belonging to no party, ended a long speech against this bill with the following words: "I will now take my leave of the whole plan: you will commence their ruin from this day. I am forry to fay, that not only the house has fallen into this error, but the people approve of the measure. The people, I am forry to say it, are mifled; but a fhort time will prove the evil tendency of this bill. If ever there was a nation running headlong to its destruction, it is this." Whatever reasons could be urged against the bill, the votes for it were very numerous, and it paffed the house of commons by a great majority. No less strength of argument was exerted in oppofition to this measure in the house of lords; and though from the ample difcuffion which it had undergone among the commons, little novelty of reafoning could be expected from either fide, yet one new confideration was urged against it by the oppofing lords. The means adopted, it was alleged, for retaining the colonies in obedience by an army rendered independent of the ordinary courfe of law in the place where they were employed, would prove the ruin of the nation, by extending that instrument of arbitrary power. Strong protests were framed M 4 against XII. CHAP. against the three several bills. The protesting lords were chiefly those of the Rockingham part of oppo1774. fition; lord Chatham was himself confined by illnefs; neither his name, thofe of earls Temple or Shelburne, of lord Camden, or any other of his particular friends, are found in the lifts of the diffen tients. In the house of commons, the two divifions of anti-minifterial fenators fpoke ftrenuously against the series of coërcive acts. The orations on thefe queftions difplayed diftinguished ability on both fides, but the most tranfcendent genius on the fide of oppofition. Befides Mr. Burke, that party now poffeffed Mr. Charles Fox, whofe powers far furpaffed thofe of the most brilliant and illustrious commoners that were ranged on the fide of adminiftration. This extraordinary man, with his mind faft approaching to maturity, on being abruptly dif miffed from his office of a lord of the admiralty, had turned his ftrength against the minister, and proved the moft formidable adverfary that he ever encountered while at the head of affairs. From the nature of the fubjects, a great portion of the fpeeches on the three bills being intended to demonstrate their probable effects either good or bad, was prophetic, On comparing the predictions of miniftry and of oppofition with the actual course of events, the comprehenfive reader muft fee that the great part of what the minifters advanced proved falfe, and of what oppofition advanced proved true. Ministers were, indeed, beyond all question extremely deficient in information. They had by no means employed fufficient pains to procure an adequate. knowledge of facts; but formed their judgment and XII. 1774 and plans from imperfect materials. Oppofition, CHA P. especially governor Pownall, governor Johnstone, and far beyond all, Mr. Burke, acquired fo extenfive an acquaintance with the state, fentiments, opinions, and characters of the refpective colonies, as afforded light both to themselves and the rest of the party. Oppofition, indeed, was anxious to open, and minifters to fhut, all avenues to knowledge concerning North America, the most important fubject of their counfels and plans. The feffion was now drawing near the ufual fea- Quebec bill. fon of recefs, and many of the members, thinking that no business of importance would be laid before parliament previously to its prorogation, had retired into the country. They were, however, mistaken in their opinion; the plan of government respecting America was not yet complete. In the beginning of June, a bill was brought into the house, for the administration of the province of Quebec. The profeffed objects of the propofed arrangements were, to ascertain the limits of that province, which extended far beyond what had been fettled as fuch by the king's proclamation of 1763; to fecure to the inhabitants the free exercise of their religion, and to the Roman catholic clergy thofe rights which were agreeable to the articles of capitulation at the time of the furrender of the province; to restore their ancient laws in civil cafes without a trial by jury, as being more acceptable to the French Canadians than the English laws with the trial by jury; and to eftablish a council, holding their commiffions from and at the pleasure of the king, who were to exercise all the powers of legislation, that of impofing taxes only XII. CHAP. only excepted. Such a council, compofed princi pally of the Canadian nobleffe, it was fuppofed, would be more agreeable to the bulk of the people, than a house of representatives. 1774 Arguments for the bill; In favour of this law, it was argued, that political establishments ought to be adapted to the sentiments, opinions, manners, and habits of thofe for whom they were formed. The French, who conftituted a great majority of the inhabitants of Canada, having been accustomed to an abfolute government, neither valued nor understood a free conftitution, The Canadian French abhorred the idea of a popular representation, from obferving the mischiefs that it produced in the colonies adjoining their country. They were not yet ripe for a British conftitution; their landed property had been all granted, and their family fettlements made, on the ideas of French law; as for the laws concerning contracts and perfonal property, they were nearly the fame in France as in England. Having been wholly unused to trial by jury, they disliked it as an innovation; and the treaty of Paris had fecured to the French Canadians the free exercise of their religion, as far as was confiftent with the laws of England. Our acts concerning popery, it was afferted, did not, like the king's fupremacy, extend beyond the kingdom; the Roman catholic Canadians were obliged to give a proof of their allegiance; and an oath was prefcribed as a teft againft papal claims, incompatible with the duty of fubjects. By fecuring their tithes to the popish clergy, the act did no more than reftore them to the fituation which they held at the conqueft; fubject, however, to the difadvantage, that no perfon profeffing the proteftant religion was to XII. 1774 to contribute any thing to their fupport. The ex- CHA P. tenfion of the province beyond the limits defcribed in the proclamation, was justified by the plea, that feveral French families were fettled in remote parts of the country, beyond the former districts, and an entire colony was established among the Illinois Indians. The arguments against the bill were reducible to against it, two heads: the incongruity and danger of an arbitrary government, established by the British legiflature in any part of the empire, and the establishment of the Roman catholic religion. The meafure was faid to be an experiment of abfolute power tried in one colony, in order to extend by degrees that mode of ruling to all the others. The immenfe enlargement of the boundaries of Canada was alleged to be for the fame purpose, to have a powerful inftrument for fubjugating the colonies. The proposed annihilation of the popular affembly was attributed to the diflike which miniftry entertained for the rights of the people. The great fecurity of liberty confifted in the power of having civil actions tried by a jury, as in cases of arbitrary im prisonments, and many other violations of the rights of fubjects. This had always been the mode of feeking redress; and the English laws would be greatly aggrieved in being fubjected to French cuftoms, and French forms of trial. On the fubject of religion, it was contended, that the capitulation had only provided that the Roman catholic faith fhould be tolerated. This privilege, oppofition was willing to allow them in the fullest extent; but by the propofed bill, they faid, instead of being tolerated, |