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114 such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal. "We shall be forced," he said, "ultimately, to retract; let us retract while we can—not when we must. I say we must necessarily undo these violently oppressive acts; they must be repealed. You will repeal them; I pledge myself for it that you will, in the end, repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed. Avoid, then, this humiliating, this disgraceful necessity."



He declared that the cause of America and England was one; that it was the glorious spirit of whiggism which animated the colonists. "It is liberty to liberty engaged. In this great cause they are immovably allied; it is the alliance of God and nature—immutable, eternal fixed as the firmament of heaven. You cannot force them, united as they are, to your unworthy terms of submission. It is impossible. And when I hear general Gage censured for inactivity, I must retort with indignation on those whose headlong measures and improvident counsels have betrayed him into his present situation. His situation reminds me, my lords, of the answer of a French general, in the civil wars of France Monsieur de Condé—opposed to marshal Turenne. He was asked how it happened that he did not take his enemy prisoner, as he was often very near him? 'Because,' replied Condé, very honestly, 'I was afraid he might take me!'"

He concluded a speech of upwards of an hour, and, according to his son, William Pitt, who was present, one of the finest speeches ever delivered, except by himself, in these words:—"If the ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that they can alienate the affection of his subjects from his crown, but I will affirm that they will make the crown not worth his wearing; I will not say that the king is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone."

It is clear that this language of Chatham, if it did not induce the government to alter its insane policy, must wonderfully encourage the Americans; and that is the unalterable nature of our free institutions, that our members of parliament are the first to proclaim to the whole world our follies and our weaknesses; to apprise our enemies what we are going to do, or not to do, and how best to defeat us. This inevitable consequence of our free deliberation on all subjects should therefore teach us never to violate the laws of justice and liberty; for, if we do, our own tongues will punish us by instructing and invigorating our antagonists. Well would it have been had the ministers been sensible of their folly, and frankly have abandoned their obstinate purpose of taxing without representation. Lords Shelburne, Camden, and Rockingham, and the duke of Richmond, zealously supported the views of Chatham, but the ministerial party opposed the motion as obstinately as ever; and it was rejected by sixty-eight votes against eighteen. The