after the repeal of the Stamp Act, Mr. Charles Townsend, the witty and unstable Chancellor of the Exchequer, whom Burke styled "the delight and ornament of the House of Commons," and Hume, "the cleverest fellow in England," renewed the attempt to raise an American revenue. Inimitably has Burke sketched the man and his schemes. Townsend, in 1765, had been an advocate of the Stamp Act, and in 1766, trimming his sails to the prevailing wind, had taken a leading part in its repeal. "The very next session," says Mr. Burke, in one of his most celebrated passages, "as the fashion of this world passeth away, the repeal began to be in as bad an odor in this House as the Stamp Act had been in the session before. To conform to the temper which began to prevail, and to prevail most amongst those most in power, he declared, very early in the winter, that a revenue must he had out of America. Instantly he was tied down to his engagements by some who had no objection to such experiments when made at the cost of persons for whom they had no particular regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him onward. They always talked as if the king stood in a sort of humiliated state until something of the kind should be done. "Here this extraordinary man found himself in great straits. To please universally was the object of his life; but to tax and to please, no more than to love and be wise, is not given to men. However, he attempted it. To render the tax palatable to the partisans of American revenue, he made a preamble, stating the necessity of such a revenue. To close with the American distinction, this revenue was external or port duty; but again, to soften it to the other party, it was a duty of supply. To gratify the colonists, it was laid on British manufactures; to satisfy the merchants of Britain, the duty was trivial, and (except that on tea, which touched only the devoted East India Company) on none of the grand objects of commerce. To counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from a shilling to threepence. But to secure the favor of those who would tax America, the scene of collection was changed, and, with the rest, it was levied in the colonies. What need I say more? usual fate of all exquisite policy. ties, and the mode of executing solely from a love of our applause. This fine-spun scheme had the House. He never thought, did, or said any thing but with a view to you. He every day adapted himself to your disposition; and adjusted himself before it, as at a looking-glass." It thus appears, that while the freak of a parliamentary pet was the immediate occasion of the renewal of this bitter and fatal strife, the influence of the king and the king's patronage was the true source of the mischief. The proposed duties on paper, paints, glass and tea, being designed to produce only forty thousand pounds a year, observes Horace Walpole, were little considered and lightly passed. How instantly the colonies resented this new attempt, and how resolutely they continued their opposition to it, every reader of Mr. Bancroft's complete and sympathetic narrative knows. They ob jected to the new system in all its parts: to the duties themselves, to the new mode of collecting the duties, and particularly to the scheme of making the colonial governors and judges the mere creatures of the crown by appropriating part of the new revenues to the payment of their salaries. The news of the resistance in the colonies to Mr. Townsend's system appears to have roused in England resentment only. The court party insisted that these measures had nothing in common with the Stamp Act, except that they were designed to raise revenue. All the objections urged against the Stamp Act, they said, had been skillfully avoided in framing the new laws, and it was plain the Americans were resolved on resisting all authority, and obeying only such laws as chanced to be perfectly agreeable to all classes and conditions of men. An amusing scene in the House of Commons, which occurred soon after the tidings reached England of the new commotions in America, shows something of the temper of the Grenvillians. Franklin himself tells the story in one of his letters of 1767: "Mr. Grenville had been raving against America as traitorous and rebellious, when Colonel Onslow, who has always been our firm friend, stood up and gravely said, that in reading the Roman history he found it was a custom among that wise and magnanimous people, whenever the senate was informed of any discontent in the provinces, to send two or three of their body into the dis contented provinces, to inquire into the grievances complained of, and report to the senate, that mild measures might be used to remedy what was amiss, before any severe steps were taken to enforce obedience. This example he thought worthy of our imitation in the present state of our colonies, for he did so far agree with the honorable gentleman that spoke just before him, as to allow there was great discontents among them. He should therefore beg leave to move, that two or three members of Parliament be appointed to go over to New England on this service. And that it might not be supposed he was for imposing burdens on others which he would not be willing to bear himself, he did at the same time declare his own willingness, if the House should think fit to appoint them, to go over thither with that honorable gentleman. Upon this there was a great laugh, which continued some time, and was rather increased by Mr. Grenville's asking, 'Will the gentleman engage that I shall be safe there? Can I be assured that I shall be allowed to come back again to make the report?' As soon as the laugh was so far subsided as that Mr. Onslow could be heard again, he added, 'I cannot absolutely engage for the honorable gentleman's safe return; but, if he goes thither upon this service, I am strongly of the opinion the event will contribute greatly to the future quiet of both countries.' On which the laugh was renewed and redoubled." Mr. Burke, in one of his letters to the Marquis of Rockingham, mentions that he had just sent a jockey to a racing friend in Virginia, and adds, that George Grenville, if he could have helped it, would not have suffered even a jockey "to be entered outwards without bond and certificate; or, at least, he would have had them stamped, or excised, or circumcised; or something should be done to them to bear the burden of this poor, oppressed country, and relieve the landed interest."* Out of doors the clamor was loud against America, as the newspapers and pamphlets still testify. England has always understood America too late. On this occasion, as on so many others, the majority of the people of England attributed to faction and avarice, conduct which, when truly informed, they applauded as just, spirited, and patriotic. * Works and Correspondence of Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke, i., 215. CHAPTER IV. OFFICIAL LABORS FROM 1766 то 1773. DR. FRANKLIN was late in penetrating the secret of English politics; he knew not the intellect of the king. Not till the middle of 1773 did he begin to suspect that the bad influence which prevented the adoption of the true colonial policy emanated from the royal closet. Fox knew this in 1775, and may have communicated it then to his friend Franklin, as he did, with ingenious audacity, to Parliament. All the world knows it now; for by the publication of the papers, diaries, and correspondence of Grenville, Chatham, Bedford, Wilkes, Grafton, Walpole, North, and others, the first half of the reign of George III. has been laid open to the scrutiny of every one who subscribes to a library. Yet we are not to wonder that Dr. Franklin was long in finding it out. George III. was a gentleman. He was a brave, honest gentleman, a fond father, a faithful and tender husband; abstemious, diligent, liberal; a bountiful and considerate friend. Unlike his predecessor, he encouraged the arts and science. He was the patron of Franklin's friend and countryman, Benjamin West. He had a nightly concert at Windsor Castle of Handel's music. He sought an interview with Johnson. He enabled Herschel to construet his great telescope. To the timorous Miss Burney he was, indeed, a most gracious king. Such acts and traits as these won the warm regard of Franklin, who constantly attended the court on birthdays and other occasions of ceremony, and to whom the king was personally kind. The queen's physician at this time was Sir John Pringle, who was one of Dr. Franklin's most intimate companions; and it is probable that he learned from Sir John how simply and naturally the royal family lived, and how attached to each other were the young king and queen, and how fond both were of their infant children. It must have delighted Franklin to hear of his king hunting twelve hours, and refreshing himself at the end of the hunt with a draught of barley water. Moreover, it had now become Franklin's opinion, that the king, not Parliament, was the tie which bound the colonies to the mother country. England had its parliament; Ireland had its parliament; Scotland had had its parliament; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the other colonies had their parliaments; but the king was king in England, Ireland, Scotland, and America; and hence these countries formed one empire. Canada and India were conquered, provinces, and were, therefore, ruled as the conqueror chose. The colonies, on the contrary, were parts of the empire, equal in honor, in law, in privilege, in every thing, to the mother country. And as Scotland had merged her parliament in the Parliament of Great Britain, so it were well if the American colonies should send representatives to the same body. But, as this was not desired, the king, and the king only, had authority to interfere in the government of America. This doctrine (which at once found favor in America, and was afterward warmly espoused in Ireland) had the effect of increasing in Dr. Franklin the sentiment of loyalty to the sovereign, and, in the same proportion, to strengthen his opposition to the new measures. Those measures, however, he was powerless to prevent or delay. Retaining his former intimacy with General Conway and Lord Shelburne, he endeavored to engage them in his old scheme of settling the western country, and thus providing a living defense to the Atlantic colonies, and lessening the expense of forts and troops. In his constant intercourse with society, he circulated correct knowledge and correct opinions respecting the colonies. But such mild influences as these could not stay the tide of reaction. In the summer of 1767, after the session of Parliament, and before the effect in America of the new duties was known in England, Dr. Franklin made his first visit to Paris, accompanied by his friend Sir John Pringle. The two philosophers appear to have had a merry holiday, gazing at Parisian novelties with the eager joy of schoolboys in a vacation. We may return to their excursion if time and space permit. At present, let us adhere to politics. Returning to town and to business, after a month's holiday, is dull work at all times. On this occasion our gay excursionist was met by ill news and hard tasks. America was once more in a ferment. The people of New England were again resolving to forego the use of British manufactures, and, what was more important, were bent upon establishing manufactures of their own-a project |