iod, and affixing an indelible stain on that
age. At the commencement of this debate Lord John Cavendish had moved,
that the address should be recommitted, but it was in the end negatived
by two hundred and eighty-eight to one hundred and five.

A conference between the two houses on the address was held on the 7th
of February, after which Lord Dartmouth moved, that the lords should
concur in it; and on this motion the previous question was demanded.
Another warm debate ensued. Lord Mansfield first rose, and, in a
long and argumentative speech, he combated the arguments of those who
maintained that the Americans were merely contending for exemption from
taxation. He next minutely analysed the declarations of congress, and
the acts of parliament of which they complained; in the course of which
he insisted, that to annul any laws, except the acts of taxation, would
be a renunciation of sovereignty. As a lawyer, he declared, from the
documents before the house, that the Americans were already in a state
of rebellion; and he condemned the taxes imposed in the year 1767, as
the origin of the ferment in the colonies, and as tending to injure
British commerce, inasmuch as they had furnished the colonists with
a temptation to smuggle. On the other hand, Lord Camden, as a lawyer,
denied that the Americans were in a state of rebellion, and drew sundry
nice distinctions between actual treason and constructive treason. He
also disclaimed all participation in the law for taxing America, as he
had not been consulted on the subject. The Duke of Grafton complained
of both these lords, and accused Camden of meanness and shuffling, in
endeavouring to screen himself by accusing others; reminding him,
that at the time the act was passed, he was lord-chancellor, and had
signified the royal approbation of the act in his official capacity.
Lord Lyttleton seconded the blow given to the ex-chancellor by his
quondam colleague; but Lord Shelburne acquitted both Camden and the
Duke of Grafton of approving the cabinet scheme for taxing America, and
expressed a hope that public retribution would soon fall upon the author
of the present despotic measures. The Duke of Richmond endeavoured to
show that Lord Mansfield was its foster-parent; and a scene of mutual
recrimination took place between them, in which other noble lords took
an active part. Each one strove to lay the blame upon the shoulders of
their opponents--all feeling that a blunder had been