subject
entertained by his countrymen was fully verified by the reception which
the intelligence met with in the Colonies. To quote the description of
Lord Stanhope: "In America the repeal of the Stamp Act was received with
universal joy and acclamation. Fireworks and festivals celebrated the
good news, while addresses and thanks to the King were voted by all the
Assemblies.... The words of the Declaratory Act, indeed, gave the
Americans slight concern. They fully believed that no practical
grievance could arise from it. They looked upon it merely as a salve to
the wounded pride of England; as only that 'bridge of gold' which,
according to the old French saying, should always be allowed to a
retreating assailant."[41]

A recent writer, however, has condemned the addition of the declaration
of the abstract right to tax with great vehemence. "Nothing," says Lord
Campbell,[42] "could exceed the folly of accompanying the repeal of the
Stamp Act with the statutable declaration of the abstract right to tax."
But it does not seem difficult to justify the conduct of the ministry in
this particular. For, besides the great weight deservedly attached to
Franklin's assurance that the declaration would not be objected to by
the Colonists, and besides the consideration that, on a general view, it
was desirable, if not indispensable, to impress on all classes of
subjects, whether at home or abroad, the constitutional doctrine of the
omnipotence of Parliament, the line of argument adopted by Mr. Pitt and
Lord Camden, in denying that omnipotence, left the ministers no
alternative but that of asserting it, unless they were prepared to
betray their trust as guardians of the constitution. Forbearance to
insist on the Declaratory Act could not fail to have been regarded as an
acquiescence on their part in a doctrine which Lord Campbell in the same
breath admits to be false. It may be added, as a consideration of no
small practical weight, that, without such a Declaratory Act, the King
would have been very reluctant to consent to the other and more
important Repealing Act. And, on the whole, the conduct of the ministry
may, we think, be regarded as the wisest settlement both of the law and
of the practice. It asserted the law in a manner which offended no one;
and it made a precedent for placing the spirit of statesmanship above
the letter of the law, and for forbearing to put forth in its full
strength the prerogatives whose character was