But his single aim was the dismemberment of the empire.
At the conclusion of Chatham's speech, the Earl of Dartmouth, secretary
of state for America, moved that the bill should lie on the table, till
the papers referred to the house by his majesty should have been taken
into consideration. On the other hand, the Earl of Sandwich moved that
the bill should be at once rejected with the contempt it deserved. He
could not, he said, believe it was the production of a British peer. It
appeared to him the work of an American, and seeing Franklin leaning on
the bar of the house, he pointed him out as its author, and as one of
the bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country had ever known.
To make any concession at this moment, he said, would be an abandonment
of the whole cause of government, since the one grand aim of the
Americans was absolute independence. At this very time, he asserted
they were courting the trade of other nations, and he stated that he
had letters in his pocket to prove that ships were being-laden at some
European ports with East India produce and European commodities for
America. Lord Sandwich was supported by Earls Gower and Hillsborough,
and the Duke of Grafton, the latter of whom denounced the way in
which the bill had been hurried into the house, as irregular and
unparliamentary. The bill was supported by the Duke of Richmond, the
Earl of Shelburne, and Lord Camden, who analysed the laws proposed to
be repealed with great severity, and pointed out the evils of foreign
interference, and the danger of famine at home, from the discontinuance
of supplies from America.
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