This, he imagined, might satisfy the Americans, and have the
effect of binding them to an acknowledgment of our sovereignty, and our
rights to regulate their navigation and commerce. Concessions, he said,
must be made at some time or other, and they had better be made now,
when they might do it as became their dignity. He concluded his speech
thus:--"Every danger impends to deter you from perseverance in the
present ruinous measures. Foreign war is hanging over your heads by a
slight and brittle thread. France and Spain are watching your conduct,
and waiting for the maturity of your errors. If ministers thus persevere
in misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say they can alienate
the affections of his subjects from the crown; but I will affirm, that
they make the crown not worth his wearing; I will not say the king is
betrayed, but I will pronounce the kingdom undone." Chatham's motion was
supported by the Duke of Richmond, the Marquess of Rockingham, the Earl
of Shelburne, and Lord Camden, who were, however, not fully agreed as to
the propriety of recalling the troops, and who seem to have considered
that proper concessions had not been made by the people of Boston, and
that concessions made on the part of the British government on previous
occasions had been misinterpreted in America, and had told to our
disadvantage. On the other hand, the motion was opposed by the Earls of
Suffolk, Rochford, and Gower, Viscounts Weymouth and Townshend, and
Lord Lyttleton, who defended the recent acts of parliament, vindicated
the legislative supremacy of parliament, and controverted the eulogy
passed on the American congress, maintaining rightly that its acts and
resolutions savoured strongly of a rebellious spirit.
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