re; but if any
gentleman in England were to ask me whether I thought both houses of
parliament were bribed, I should laugh in his face and say, 'Sir it is
not so.'" Chatham concluded by saying that an inquiry into the state and
expenditure of the civil list was proper, just, and expedient; and that
a refusal of it would elicit ridicule and exhibit folly. Nevertheless
the motion was negatived.

DEBATES ON AMERICA.

A petition was presented to parliament by the English merchants trading
with America, representing that, in consequence of the duties and taxes,
the discontents of the Americans, and their combinations to prevent the
importation of goods from England, their trade had gone to ruin; and
praying for the intervention of the legislature. In consequence of this,
a bill was proposed by Lord North, to repeal all the American taxes and
duties except tea. In proposing this repeal he censured the Revenue Act
only as an inexpedient or unproductive impost, and not as an illegal or
impolitic claim. The duty on tea, he said, was continued to maintain
the right of taxing the Americans, and it could not be supposed that an
impost of three pence per pound on an article from which one shilling
was deducted when exported to America, would offend the colonists,
unless they were determined upon a rebellion. Mr. Grenville, the parent
of the Stamp Act, argued that he had at least acted systematically, and
that in imposing the stamp duties he had reason to think that they would
be paid. The succeeding ministry, he said, had repealed that act, but
had re-affirmed the right of parliament to tax the colonies, by laying
duties upon unwise and anti-commercial principles: duties which were
far more odious to the colonies than his Stamp Act. His opinion was,
therefore, that the ministers must now give up, or stand by the whole.
A partial repeal, he added, will not do: the Americans would not rest
satisfied with any thing short of the renunciation by parliament of the
right to tax them in any way, either externally or internally. In this
General Pownall coincided, and he proposed as an amendment, that the
repeal should be extended to all articles, as the only way of quieting
the colonies. This amendment was supported by General Conway, Colonel
Barre, and Sir William Meredith, but it was rejected, and leave was
given to bring in North's bill. A subsequent motion to repeal the duty
on tea was also lost, and the act passed according to No