Year: 1861

= he might have saved the brightest jewe
f of his crown. He took the opposit
t course. He denied the existence o
: grievances. He rejected the Olivt
Branch. He insisted upon coercion
: And what was the result! History re
cords its verdict in favor of Chatham
and against the king. And who is there
, in the mother country at this day who
does not regret the blunder, if he does
, not condemn the motives of the mon
arch ? When the great grandson OF
that same king, on his late visit to this
{ capital, so handsomely made his pilgrim
age to the tomb Of the arch.Tebel Of tha
, time, do you imagine that his country
men and future subjects would have ap-


plauded the act if they still believed that


the stif-backed cid king had been right


in shutting the door of reconciliation


For my part, Mr.. Speaker, ! am more


inclined to accord with that philosophical


statesman, Edmund Burke, who during


the same struggle was not afraid to bring


forward his plan of Cancellation with


America. And in the elaborate speech


which be made in its defense he used the
! following language, not entirely inappro-


pirate to these times:


F." Now in such unfortunate quarrels,


among the component parts of great


political Union of communities, can


scarcely conceive anything more COM


pletely imprudent than for the head of
the empire to insist that if any privilege


is pleaded against his will, or his acts,


that his whole authority is denied in
stantly to proclaim rebellion, to beat TO
arms, and to put the offending provinces


under tbe law. VIII not this, sir, very
soon teach the provinces to make no dis
tinctions on their part ? viii it not
teach them that the government, against


which = claim of liberty is tantamount TO
high treason, is a government in which
submission is equivalent to slavery?"


Mr.. Speaker It is not my custom to
lean much upon authority. As a general
thing it appears to me to pass for more
than it is worth. But there are persons


who are always more or less influenced
/ by the source from which anything comes
and who are better disposed to believe


in the testimony of witness two centu-
ries old than if the same reasoning were
Issued from the lips of the best living
co;emporaries. To such will cosmsnd
a passage drawn from the most profound
Of British statesmen and lawyers, Fran
els Bacon:


Concerning the materials Of seditions,
it is thing well to be considered; for
the surest way TO prevent sedtions (if
the times do bear iD is to take away the
matter Of them: for if there be fuel pre-
pared, it is hard to lell whence the spark
shall come that shall set II on fire.
As for discontentments,
they are in the polite body like to hu-
mors in the natural, which are apt to
gather preternatural heat and to inAame |
And let no prince measure the danger OF
them by this, whether they be just or
unjust; for that were to imagine people
to be too reasonable, who do often spurn
at their own good; nor yet by this,
whether the griefs where upon they rise
be in fact great or small; for they are the
the most danerous discontentments where
fear is greater than feeling DoIendi
modus timendi non item : besides in
great expressions the same things that
provoke the patience do withal mete the
courage but in fears it is not so. -
Neither let any prince or State be secure
concerning discontentments because they
have been often or have been long, ard
yet no peril hath ensued; for as it is
true that every vspor or fumo doth not
turn into a storm, SO it is nevertheless I
true that storms, though they blow over
divers times, yet may fall at last; and
as the Spanish proverb noteth well, The
cord breakelh at last by the weakest
pull"


Such deep sagacity as this conyinces
me, if ever doubted, that the way to
peace in times of disorder is not always .
found by refusing to listen to complaints.
differ, then, with some Of my rigid
friends on this point. prefer TO consid-
er grievances, were it but to be sure
that they have no Just foundation much
more if they prove to merit attention for
their reasonableness. My notion Of the
duty of a public man is to watch the
growth of ofenses, and not 10 neglect
sdll less to dcspise them. have, there
fore. faithfully labored in my humble
way to comprehend the nature OF the
diseontents actually prevailing, and to
Judge Of the extent to which they Justl-
tify the resort to so violent mode OF re-
lief as the overthrow Of a government