may begin to
abate of its respect for the representative. A great deal has been said
without doors of the power, the strength of America--it is a topic that
ought to be cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom,
the force of this country can crush America to atoms; but on this
ground, on the Stamp Act, when so many here will think it a crying
injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it;--in such a
cause your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall
like a strong man; she would embrace the pillars of the state, and
pull down the constitution along with her." Pitt, then deprecating
the conduct of those who judged the Americans with an eye of severity,
said--"I acknowledge they have not acted in all things with prudence
and temper; they have been wronged; they have been driven to madness
by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned?
Rather let prudence and temper come first from this side. I will
undertake for America that she will follow the example. There are
two lines in a ballad of Prior, on a man's behaviour to his wife,
so applicable to you and your colonies, that I cannot help repeating
them:--

'Be to her faults a little blind;
Be to her virtues very kind.'"

Pitt concluded by proposing that the Stamp Act should be repealed,
absolutely, totally, and immediately; but at the same time he advised,
that the repeal should be accompanied by the strongest declaration of
the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies, in everything
that relates to trade and manufactures--in fact, in everything except
taking their money out of their pockets without their consent.

This speech of Mr. Pitt had a potent effect upon the administration and
the country at large. Nearly all the ministers coincided in his views,
and petitions, which poured into the house from all parts against the
stamp act, and which had been imperiously rejected by the late cabinet,
were received with all due deference. Burke made two speeches against
it, which were commended by Pitt, and filled the town with wonder. So
great was the change in public opinion upon the subject, that a bill was
brought in by the ministers for the repeal of the act, which bill was
passed by a great majority. It was accompanied by a declaratory bill,
setting forth the supreme right, sovereignty, &c. of Great Britain over
her colonies in all other matters of legislation, and reprobatin