TION._]

Acting on the ground taken up by the king's speech that the colonies
were waging a rebellious war, North, on November 20, 1775, brought in a
"prohibitory" bill, which forbade all trade and intercourse with the
Americans, provided that American ships and goods taken at sea should be
forfeited to the captors, being officers and crews of the king's ships,
and repealed certain acts as no longer appropriate in the present state
of war. It also empowered the crown to appoint commissioners to inquire
into grievances, to grant pardons to individuals, and to receive into
the king's peace any districts or colonies which would return to
obedience. North declared himself ready to repeal the tea duty and to
suspend all exercise of the right of taxation if the Americans would
bear their share of the burden of national defence. The bill was carried
after violent opposition in both houses. Fox described the war as unjust
and impracticable, and said that the bill exhibited the folly of the
ministers. It was, the opposition urged, cruel and indiscriminate in its
scope; it excited our seamen to "promiscuous rapine," and provided that
American sailors who were taken prisoners might be compelled to serve in
the British navy against their own people. Such severity, they said,
would drive the Americans to a permanent separation and would eventually
land us in a war with European powers. On the other hand it was
reasonably maintained that, as the Americans were already at war with
us, the war must be carried on as if against alien enemies. In April,
1776, the king appointed Admiral Richard Lord Howe, then about to take
the command in American waters, and his brother, General Howe, as
commissioners in pursuance of the act. Their appointment testifies to
the sincerity of the king's desire for peace, for the Howes were
friendly to the Americans and had already made efforts to bring the
quarrel to a peaceful ending; the admiral, indeed, declared in the lords
that if he were ordered to take part in the war, it would be painful to
him as a man, though he should obey as an officer. George, however, was
determined not to sacrifice any of the rights of his crown. Submission
would be rewarded with pardon, obstinacy in rebellion met by war. He
feared lest Lord Howe should concede too much, and wished that he would
decline the commission.[111] He did not decline, and sailed for America
with offers of pardon. The king's speech at the close of the s