In the course
of their arguments it was said that all conciliating means had proved
ineffectual, or had only tended to increase the disorders; that if we
gave way now from notions of present advantages in trade and commerce,
such a yielding would defeat its own object, as the Navigation Act, and
all other acts regulating trade, would inevitably fall victims to the
interested and ambitious views of the colonists. This was a cogent
argument, and Chatham rose to reply to it. He remarked, "If the noble
lord should prove correct in suggesting that the views of the Americans
are ultimately directed to abrogate the Act of Navigation and the
other regulating acts, so wisely calculated to promote a reciprocity
of interests, and to advance the grandeur and prosperity of the whole
empire, no person present, however zealous, would be readier than myself
to resist and crush their endeavours; but to arrive at any certain
knowledge of the real sentiments of the Americans, it would first be
proper to do them justice--to treat them like subjects before we
condemn them as aliens and traitors." Chatham then went over some of his
previous arguments, especially contending that the right of taxing-was
not included in legislation, and that sovereignty and supremacy did not
imply that we could touch the money of the Americans, except by measures
of trade and commerce. The motion was negatived by a majority of 68
against 18.
In submitting this motion to the house, the Earl of Chatham said that
he had prepared a plan for healing all differences between England and
America! This plan he afterwards submitted to Franklin, with whom he had
recently much communication, and on Wednesday, the 1st of February, he
submitted it to the house.
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