e
condemn them as aliens and traitors." Chatham then went over some of his
previous arguments, especially contending that the right of taxing-was
not included in legislation, and that sovereignty and supremacy did not
imply that we could touch the money of the Americans, except by measures
of trade and commerce. The motion was negatived by a majority of 68
against 18.

In submitting this motion to the house, the Earl of Chatham said that
he had prepared a plan for healing all differences between England and
America! This plan he afterwards submitted to Franklin, with whom he had
recently much communication, and on Wednesday, the 1st of February, he
submitted it to the house. He called it "A Provisional Bill for settling
the Troubles in America, and for asserting the supreme legislative
Authority and superintending Power of Great Britain over the Colonies."
In the speech made on this occasion, lie said, he offered this bill as a
basis of measures for averting the dangers which threatened the British
empire, and expressed a hope that it would obtain the approbation of
both sides of the house. In stating the urgent necessity of such a
measure, he represented England and America as drawn up in martial
array, waiting for the signal to engage in a contest, in which it was
little matter for whom victory declared, as the ruin of both parties
was certain. He stood forth, he said, from a principle of duty and
affection, to act as a mediator. In doing so, he represented that he
would hold the scales of justice even-handed. He remarked, "No regard
for popularity, no predilection for his country, not the high esteem
he entertained for America on the one hand, nor the unalterable steady
regard he entertained for the dignity of Great Britain on the other,
should at all influence his conduct; for though he loved the Americans
as men prizing and setting the just value on that inestimable blessing,
liberty, yet if he could once bring himself to believe that they
entertained the most distant intentions of throwing off the legislative
supremacy and great constitutional superintending power and control of
the British legislature, he should be the very person himself who would
be the first and most zealous mover for securing and enforcing that
power by every possible exertion this country was capable of making."
Chatham concluded by entreating the house to revise and correct the
bill, and to reduce it to that form which was suited to the dig