ain, as violent and void."

I, for one, protest against compounding our demands: I declare against
compounding, for a poor limited sum, the immense, ever-growing, eternal
debt which is due to generous government from protected freedom. And so
may I speed in the great object I propose to you, as I think it would
not only be an act of injustice, but would be the worst economy in the
world, to compel the colonies to a sum certain, either in the way of
ransom, or in the way of compulsory compact.

But to clear up my ideas on this subject,--a revenue from America
transmitted hither. Do not delude yourselves: you can never receive
it,--no, not a shilling. We have experience that from remote countries
it is not to be expected. If, when you attempted to extract revenue from
Bengal, you were obliged to return in loan what you had taken in
imposition, what can you expect from North America? For, certainly, if
ever there was a country qualified to produce wealth, it is India; or an
institution fit for the transmission, it is the East India Company.
America has none of these aptitudes. If America gives you taxable
objects on which you lay your duties here, and gives you at the same
time a surplus by a foreign sale of her commodities to pay the duties on
these objects which you tax at home, she has performed her part to the
British revenue. But with regard to her own internal establishments, she
may, I doubt not she will, contribute in moderation. I say in
moderation; for she ought not to be permitted to exhaust herself. She
ought to be reserved to a war; the weight of which, with the enemies
that we are most likely to have, must be considerable in her quarter of
the globe. There she may serve you, and serve you essentially.

For that service, for all service, whether of revenue, trade, or empire,
my trust is in her interest in the British Constitution. My hold of the
colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from
kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are
ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the
colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your
government,--they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under
heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it
be once understood that your government may be one thing and their
privileges another, that these two things may exist without any mutual
relat