Page:Works of Burke (Nimmo 1887) vol. 2.djvu/15

 SPEECH. DURING the last session of the last Parliament, on the 19th of April, 1774, Mr. Rose Fuller, member for Rye, made the following motion : — " That an act made in the seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, ' An act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America ; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the exportation from this kingdom of coffee and cocoa-nuts, of the produce of the said colonies or plantations ; for discon- tinuing the drawbacks payable on china earthenware ex- ported to America ; and for more effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and plan- tations,' might be read." And the same being read accordingly, he moved, — " That this House will, upon this day sevennight, resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to take into con- sideration the duty of three-pence per pound weight upon tea, payable in all his Majesty's dominions in America, im- posed by the said act ; and also the appropriation of the said duty." On this latter motion a warm and interesting debate arose, in which Mr. Burke spoke as follows. SIR, — I agree with the honorable gentleman * who spoke last, that this subject is not new in this House. Very disagreeably to this House, very un- • Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Esq., lately appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury.