they resolved to introduce further repressive measures, to forbid all commerce with New England, and while extending royal clemency to those who might submit, to proclaim all those who resisted, traitors and rebels. "There are men now walking in the streets of London who ought to be in Newgate or at Tyburn," said Hillsborough; and he was understood to refer to Franklin and Quincy, the friends of Shelburne.[1]
The divided condition of the Opposition, which was still suffering from the effects of former quarrels, materially facilitated the plans of the King and the Court. It was not indeed that the repressive measures against America had experienced no resistance. The eloquence of Burke had vied with that of Chatham, the learning of Dunning with that of Camden, in denouncing the unconstitutional character of the proposals of the Government. On every occasion Shelburne and Barré had raised their voices against the measures brought forward in either House of Parliament. But there was neither real concert nor lasting union. Sometimes the leaders would not lead, sometimes the followers would not follow. Seldom were they able to make a well-concerted plan of resistance; hardly ever did they unanimously carry it through when made. A few short notes written in the third person were all that passed at this period between Shelburne and Rockingham, and when early in 1775 an interview took place between the latter and Chatham, no substantial agreement could be arrived at. "I look back," said Rockingham, "with very real satisfaction and content on the line which I indeed, emphatically I, took in the year 1766: the Stamp Act was repealed, and the doubt of the right of this country was fairly faced and resisted."[2] But Chatham believed that the Declaratory Act must be included in the general repeal of all the obnoxious statutes, and agreement becoming impossible, he went alone, as he expressed it to Shelburne, "to look the tapestry and the Bishops in the face."[3]
