and they will give it to the utmost of their ability. Your journals bear the recorded acknowledgments of the zeal with which they have contributed to the general necessities of the state. What madness is it that prompts you to attempt obtaining that by force which you may more certainly obtain by requisition? They may be flattered into any thing, but they are too much like yourselves to be driven. Respect 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." Despite all opposition, the bill passed by a majority of four to one.
A fourth bill, for quartering troops in America, being the former act revised, was shortly added to the others; on which occasion Lord Chatham, who, owing to his declining health could take but a small part in the debates, opposed the ministerial policy with his usual animation. "I condemn," he said, "in the severest manner, the turbulent and unwarrantable conduct of the Americans in some instances, particularly in the late riots at Boston; but, my Lords, the mode which has been pursued to bring them back to a sense of their duty is so diametrically opposed to every principle of sound policy, as to excite my utmost astonishment. You have involved the guilty and the innocent in one common punishment, and avenge the crime of a few lawless depredators upon the whole body of the inhabitants. My Lords, it has always been my fixed and unalterable opinion, I will carry it with me to the grave, that this country has no right under heaven to tax America. It is contrary to all the principles of justice and civil policy, it is contrary to that essential, unalterable right ingrafted into the British constitution as a fundamental law, that what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but which cannot be taken away from him without his consent." Burke also raised his eloquent voice against the ministerial measures; but all opposition was vain. The supporters of the ministry were in so large a majority that they carried every thing before them.
A fifth act, known as the Quebec Act, was designed to conciliate the Canadians in case the colonies should venture to proceed to extremities. This act wisely placed the Roman Catholics and Protestants on an equality, confirmed to the Roman Catholic clergy their extensive landed property, allowed the administration of justice to be carried on by the old French law, created a legislative council to be named by the crown, and enlarged the boundaries of the province southward as far as the Ohio. It was owing to these judicious measures, probably, that the Canadians declined taking part subsequently in the open resistance which the other colonies organized against England.
General Gage, in addition to his being commander-in-chief of the royal forces, was appointed governor of Massachusetts in the place of Hutchinson, an appointment which seemed to show that the ministry were prepared to use force if necessary. Gage arrived in Boston, May 13th, and although the news of the closing of the
