is time speak from motives of party heat; what I
deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me
in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this House
may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having
seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as
truly loyal as any subjects the King has; but a people jealous of their
liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated.
But the subject is too delicate; I will say no more."

_Remarks on the Speeches of Mr. Charles Townsend and Colonel Barre._

Perhaps the English language does not present a more eloquent and
touching appeal than these words of Colonel Barre, the utterances of a
sincere and patriotic heart. They were taken down by a friend at the
time of delivery, sent across the Atlantic, published and circulated in
every form throughout America, and probably produced more effect upon
the minds of the colonists than anything ever uttered or written. Very
likely not one out of a thousand of those who have read them, carried
away by their eloquence and fervour, has ever thought of analysing them
to ascertain how far they are just or true; yet I am bound to say that
their misstatements are such as to render their argument fallacious from
beginning to end, with the exception of their just tribute to the
character of the American colonists.

The words of Charles Townsend were insulting to the colonists to the
last degree, and were open to the severest rebuke. He assumed that
because the settlements in America were infant settlements, in
comparison with those of the mother country, the settlers themselves
were but children, and should be treated as such; whereas the fathers of
new settlements and their commerce, the guiding spirits in their
advancement, are the most advanced men of their nation and age, the
pioneers of enterprise and civilization; and as such they are entitled
to peculiar respect and consideration, instead of their being referred
to as children, and taxed without their consent by men who, whatever
their rank in the society and public affairs of England, could not
compare with them in what constituted real manhood greatness. But though
Charles Townsend's insulting haughtiness to the American colonists, and
his proposal to treat them as minors, destitute of the feelings and
rights of grown-up Englishmen, merited the severest rebuke, yet that did
not justify t