" There is
much truth in these observations; but in reply it was observed, that the
present crisis had been produced as much by a zeal for their cause and
a seditious spirit at home, as by the restless spirit of the colonists
themselves; and that, while the proceedings of the Americans evidently
tended to independence, and a future age might perhaps see them
successful, it was the duty of all to unite in preventing the evil day
from arriving at that period, and affixing an indelible stain on that
age. At the commencement of this debate Lord John Cavendish had moved,
that the address should be recommitted, but it was in the end negatived
by two hundred and eighty-eight to one hundred and five.
A conference between the two houses on the address was held on the 7th
of February, after which Lord Dartmouth moved, that the lords should
concur in it; and on this motion the previous question was demanded.
Another warm debate ensued. Lord Mansfield first rose, and, in a
long and argumentative speech, he combated the arguments of those who
maintained that the Americans were merely contending for exemption from
taxation. He next minutely analysed the declarations of congress, and
the acts of parliament of which they complained; in the course of which
he insisted, that to annul any laws, except the acts of taxation, would
be a renunciation of sovereignty. As a lawyer, he declared, from the
documents before the house, that the Americans were already in a state
of rebellion; and he condemned the taxes imposed in the year 1767, as
the origin of the ferment in the colonies, and as tending to injure
British commerce, inasmuch as they had furnished the colonists with
a temptation to smuggle.
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