nd contingents; but
the revenue of the Empire and the army of the Empire is the worst
revenue and the worst army in the world.

Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore have a perpetual
quarrel. Indeed, the noble lord who proposed this project of a ransom by
auction seemed himself to be of that opinion. His project was rather
designed for breaking the union of the colonies than for establishing a
revenue. He confessed he apprehended that his proposal would not be to
_their taste_. I say, this scheme of disunion seems to be at the bottom
of the project; for I will not suspect that the noble lord meant nothing
but merely to delude the nation by an airy phantom which he never
intended to realize. But whatever his views may be, as I propose the
peace and union of the colonies as the very foundation of my plan, it
cannot accord with one whose foundation is perpetual discord.

Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and simple: the other
full of perplexed and intricate mazes. This is mild: that harsh. This is
found by experience effectual for its purposes: the other is a new
project. This is universal: the other calculated for certain colonies
only. This is immediate in its conciliatory operation: the other remote,
contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity of a ruling
people: gratuitous, unconditional, and not held out as matter of bargain
and sale. I have done my duty in proposing it to you. I have, indeed,
tired you by a long discourse; but this is the misfortune of those to
whose influence nothing will be conceded, and who must win every inch of
their ground by argument. You have heard me with goodness. May you
decide with wisdom! For my part, I feel my mind greatly disburdened by
what I have done to-day. I have been the less fearful of trying your
patience, because on this subject I mean to spare it altogether in
future. I have this comfort,--that, in every stage of the American
affairs, I have steadily opposed the measures that have produced the
confusion, and may bring on the destruction, of this empire. I now go so
far as to risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my
country, I give it to my conscience.

But what (says the financier) is peace to us without money? Your plan
gives us no revenue.--No! But it does: for it secures to the subject the
power of REFUSAL,--the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and
fact a liar, if this power in the subject, of prop