subject I differ from the noble lord who spoke of Mr. Otis and his book with contempt, though he maintained the same doctrine in some points while in others he carried it farther than Otis himself, who allows everywhere the supremacy of the Crown over the colonies. No man, on such a subject, is contemptible. Otis is a man of consequence among the people there. They have chosen him for one of their deputies at the Congress and general meeting from the respective governments. It was said the man is mad. What then? One madman often makes many. Masaniello was mad. Nobody doubts it; yet for all that he overturned the government of Naples. Madness is catching in all popular assemblies and upon all popular matters. The book is full of wildness. I never read it till a few days ago, for I seldom look into such things. I never was actually acquainted with the contents of the Stamp Act, till I sent for it on purpose to read it before the debate was expected. With respect to authorities in another House, I know nothing of them. I believe that I have not been in that House more than once since I had the honor to be called up to this; and if I did know anything that passed in the other House I could not and would not mention it as an authority here. I ought not to mention any such authority. I should think it beneath my own and your lordships' dignity to speak of it. I am far from bearing any ill will to the Americans; they are a very good people, and I have long known them. I began life with them and owe much to them, having been much concerned in the plantation causes before the privy council; and so I became a good deal acquainted with American affairs and people. I dare say their heat will soon be over when they come to feel a little the consequences of their opposition to the legislature. Anarchy always cures itself; but the ferment will continue so much the longer while hotheaded men there find that there are persons of weight and character to support and justify them here. Indeed, if the disturbances should continue for a great length of time, force must be the consequence, an application adequate to the mischief, and arising out of the necessity of the case; for force is only the difference between a superior and subordinate jurisdiction. In the former, the whole force of the legislature resides collectively, and when it ceases to reside the whole connection is dissolved. It will, indeed, be to very little purpose that we sit here enacting laws and making resolutions, if the inferior will not obey them, or if we neither can nor dare enforce them; for then, and then, I say, of necessity, the matter comes to the sword. If the offspring are grown too big and too resolute to obey the parent, you must try which is the strongest and exert all the powers of the mother country to decide the contest. I am satisfied, notwithstanding, that time and a wise and steady conduct may prevent those extremities which would be fatal to both. I remember well when it was the violent humor of the times to decry standing armies and garrisons as dangerous, and incompatible with the liberty of the subject. Nothing would do but a regular militia. The militia are embodied; they march; and no sooner was the militia law thus put into execution but it was then said to be an intolerable burden upon the subject, and that it would fall, sooner or later, into the hands of the Crown. That was the language, and many counties petitioned against it. This may be the case with the colonies. In many places they begin already to feel the effects of their resistance to government. Interest very soon divides mercantile people; and, although there may be some mad, enthusiastic, or ill designing people in the colonies, yet I am convinced that the greatest bulk, who have understanding and property, are still well affected to the mother country. You have, my lords, many friends still in the colonies; and take care that you do not, by abdicating your own authority, desert them and yourselves and lose them forever. In all popular tumults the worst men bear the sway at first. Moderate and good men are often silent for fear or modesty, who in good time may declare themselves. Those who have any property to lose are sufficiently alarmed already at the progress of these public violences and violations to which every man's dwelling, person, and property are hourly exposed. Numbers of such valuable men and good subjects are ready and willing to declare themselves for the support of government in due time, if government does not fling away its own authority. My lords, the Parliament of Great Britain has its rights over the colonies; but it may abdicate its rights. There was a thing which I forgot to mention. I mean, the manuscript quoted by the noble lord. He tells you that it is there said that if the act concerning Ireland had passed, the Parliament might have abdicated its rights as to Ireland. In the first place, I heartily wish, my lords, that Ireland had not been named at a time when that country is of a temper and in a situation so difficult to be governed; and when we have already here so much weight upon our hands, encumbered with the extensiveness, variety, and importance of so many objects in a vast and too busy empire, and the national system shattered and exhausted by a long, bloody, and expensive war, but more so by our divisions at home and a fluctuation of counsels. I wish Ireland, therefore, had never been named. I pay as much respect as any man to the memory of Lord Chief Justice Hale; but I did not know that he had ever written upon the subject; and I differ very much from thinking with the noble lord that this manuscript ought to be published. So far am I from it that I wish the manuscript had never been named; for Ireland is too tender a subject to be touched. The case of Ireland is as different as possible from that of our colonies. Ireland was a conquered country; it had its pacta conventa and its regalia. But to what purpose is it to mention the manuscript? It is but the opinion of one When it was written, or for what particular object it was written, does not appear. It might possibly be only a work of youth, or an exercise of the understanding, in sounding and trying a question problematically. All people, when they first enter professions, make their collections pretty early in life; and the manuscript may be of that sort. However, be it what it may, the opinion is but problematical; for the act to which the writer refers never passed, and Lord Hale only said that if it had passed the Parliament might have abdicated their right. man. But, my lords, I shall make this application of it. You may abdicate your right over the colonies. Take care, my lords, how you do so, for such an act will be irrevocable. Proceed, then, my lords, with spirit and firmness; and, when you shall have established your authority it will then be a time to show your lenity. The Americans, as I said before, are a very good people, and I wish them exceedingly well; but they are heated and inflamed. The noble lord who spoke before ended with a prayer. I cannot end better than by saying to it Amen; and in the words of Maurice, Prince of Orange, concerning the Hollanders: "God bless this industrious, frugal, and well-meaning, but easily deluded people." FRANKLIN BENJ ENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Boston, Mass., in 1706. In his eighth year he was sent to school, but taken from it two years later in order to assist his father in the business of tallow-chandler and soap-boiler. In his twelfth year he was apprenticed to his elder brother James, who had returned from England with a printing-press and font of type, and who in 1720-21 started a newspaper called "The New England Courant." For this paper a number of articles were written by Benjamin, who had acquired a good style by making himself thoroughly familiar with the "Pilgrim's Progress," with Locke "On the Understanding" and with some odd volumes of the "Spectator." The relations of the brothers having become inharmonious, Benjamin determined to leave New England, and in 1723 found his way to the city of Philadelphia. Here he was fortunate enough to get employment with a Jew printer named Keimer, and soon found opportunities of securing the goodwill of conspicuous citizens, including Sir William Keith, the governor of the province. Sir William offered to give him the means of going to England and purchasing the material needed for a printing-office, and Franklin, relying on the promise, went to London, only to discover that he had been the dupe of the provincial governor, and must toil for his daily bread. He worked as a printer in London until 1726, when he returned to Philadelphia, and went back to his old employer Keimer. Subsequently he managed to establish a printing business for himself, and in 1729 he bought the "Pennsylvania Gazette," and eventually placed it at the head of American journals. In 1731 he established the first circulating library on the Continent, and in the following year began the publication of the "Poor Richard's Almanacs," which were continued for a quarter of a century. It was at this period of his life that Franklin by private study acquired considerable familiarity with the Latin, French, Italian and Spanish languages. In 1736 he was chosen a clerk of the General Assembly, and was reëlected in the following year. He was then elected a member of the Assembly, and held that post for ten successive years. In 1737 he was appointed Deputy Postmaster of the colonies under the Crown. About this time he organized the first police force and fire company in the colony, and a few years later initiated the movements which led to the paving of the streets, to the creation of a hospital, to the organization of a military force and to the foundation of the University of Pennsylvania and of the American Philosophical Society. It was while he was engaged in these miscellaneous |