accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat, what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this House may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. The people I believe are as truly loyal as any subjects the King has, but they are a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated: but the subject is too delicate; I will say no more."
Nor did Barré stand alone. Jackson the "omniscient," the friend of Johnson,[1] a man famed for the almost unrivalled extent of his information, once the Private Secretary of Grenville, whose measure he now opposed, afterwards the trusted friend of Shelburne whose colleague he became,[2] raised his voice also against the tax. "The Parliament," he said, "may choose whether they will tax America or not; they have a right to tax Ireland, yet do not exercise that right. Still stronger objections may be urged against their taxing America. Other ways of raising the moneys there requisite for the public service exist, and have not yet failed; but the colonies in general have, with alacrity, contributed to the common cause. It is hard all should suffer for the fault of two or three. Parliament is undoubtedly the universal unlimited legislature of the British dominions, but it should voluntarily set bounds to the exercise of its power, and if the majority of Parliament think they ought not to set these bounds, then they should give a share of the election of the legislature to the American colonies, otherwise the liberties of America I do not say will be lost but will be in danger, and they cannot be injured without danger to the liberties of Great Britain."[3]
"Dear Barré," writes Shelburne to him, on hearing
