Britain to pursue. I consider the Mutiny Act, and the requisition for a compensation to sufferers, as of no other consequence than as the dignity of Great Britain seems staked on their support. The laws of trade and navigation are essential, and must be supported at all risks, and with every exertion of power. The other points are doubtful in their principles, and may perhaps be among those rights—to use a language which I do not understand—that are never fit to be exercised, and yet this subtle distinction is the sole ground upon which the repeal of the Stamp Act can be defended, consistently with the Act which affirms the right. The enforcing of the Mutiny Act will I am afraid create a general dissatisfaction in America, and involve all the Provinces in one common cause of resistance—an effect which may be attended with the most fearful consequences—and the dignity of Great Britain be lost for ever together with her power, and the ends of those factious persons, who have excited the indecent and petulant resolutions of the assemblies there, be fully accomplished; yet if Great Britain does not in some shape put forth her dignity on this occasion, she may end by losing all credit and reverence in America and lose likewise her power there, which is and must be in a great measure founded on opinion.
"Some measures therefore it seems ought to be taken of so bold and decisive a nature, as to convince the Americans that the long patience of Great Britain has been by no means owing to timidity, and yet the ends of those measures should be so manifestly just and important as to leave no room for jealousies and fears in the minds of the sober and well-disposed, and thereby give no pretence for common measures of resistance, and it would be still more desirable if these measures could be directed against a particular Province."[1]
The course, however, thus indicated was not that which
- ↑ In December 1767, Maurice Morgann, the author of the above memorandum, was sent to Canada to investigate the system of judicature and the civil constitution of the province. On the 20th of June Lord Shelburne wrote to Sir Guy Carleton, as follows: "As the right administration of Government in Quebec is a matter of the greatest importance to that Province, the improvement of its civil constitution is under the most serious and deliberate consideration. … Every light which can be procured
