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is that which it has been found most convenient to assign to Corsica; and Corsica has been made un pays d'Etats.b

That the crown in England should, on a sudden, render itself independeut on the commons for its supplies, that is, should on a sudden successfully assume to itself a right to lay taxes on the subject, by its own authority, is not certainly an event in any degree likely to take place, nor indeed that should raise any kind of political fear. But it is not equally impracticable, that the right of the representatives of the people might become invalidated, by being divided in the manner that has just been described.

Such a division of the right of the people might be effected several different ways. National calamities for instance, unfortunate foreign wars, attended with loss of public credit, might suggest methods for raising the ne

bAn idea of the manner in which the business of granting supplies to the crown, was conducted by the states of the province of Britanny, under the reign of Lewis the fourteenth, may be formed from several lively strokes to be met with in the letters of Mad. de Sevigne, whose estate lay in that province, and who had often assisted at the holding of those states. The granting of supplies was not, it seems, looked upon as any serious kind of business. The whole time the states were sitting, was a continued scene of festivity and entertainment: the canvassing of the demands of the crown was chiefly carried on at the table of the nobleman who had been deputed from court to hold the states; and every thing was commonly decided by a kind of acclamation. In a certain assembly of those states, the duke of Chaulnes, the lord deputy, had a present of fifty thousand crowns made to him, as well as a considerable one for his duchess, besides obtaining the demand of the court; and the lady we quote here, commenting somewhat jocularly on those grants, says, Ce n'est pas que nous soyons riches; mais nous sommes honnêtes, nous avons du courage, et entre midi et une heure, nous ne savons rien refuser à nos amis. "It is not that we are rich; but we are civil, we are full of courage, and, between twelve and one o'clock, we are unable to deny any thing to our friends."

The different provinces of France, it may be observed, are liable to pay several taxes besides those imposed on them by their own states. Dean Tucker, in one of his tracts, in which he has thought proper to quote this work, has added to the above instance of the French provinces, that of the states of the Austrian Netherlands, which is very conclusive. And examples to the same purpose night be supplied by all those kingdoms of Europe in which provincial states are held.

cessary supplies, different from those which have hitherto been used. Dividing the kingdom into a certain number of parts, which should severally vote subsidies to the crown, or even distinct assessments made by the different counties into which England is now divided, might, in the circumstances we suppose, be looked upon as adviseable expedients; and these, being once introduced, might` be continued afterwards.

Another division of the right of the people, much more likely to take place than those just mentioned, might be such as might arise from acquisitions of foreign dominions, the inhabitants of which should in time claim and obtain a right to treat directly with the crown, and grant supplies to it, without the interference of the British legislature.

Should any colonies acquire the right we mention, should, for instance, the American colonies have acquired it, as they claimed it, it is not to be doubted that the consequences that have resulted from a division like that we mention in most of the kingdoms of Europe, would also have taken place in the British dominions, and that that spirit of competition which has been above described, would in time have manifested itself between the different colonies. This desire of ingratiating themselves with the crown, by means of the privilege of granting supplies to it, has even been openly confessed by an agent of the American colonies, when, on his being examined by the house of commons, in the year 1766, he said, "the granting aids to the crown, is the only means the Americans have of recommending themselves to their sovereign." And the events that have of late years taken place in America, render it evident that the colonies would not have scrupled going any lengths to obtain favourable conditions at the expence of Britain and the British legislature.

That a similar spirit of competition might be raised in Ireland, is also sufficiently plain from certain late events. And should the American colonies have obtained their demands, and at the same time should Ireland and America have increased in wealth to a certain degree, the time might have come, at which the crown might have

c Doctor Franklin.

governed England with the supplies of Ireland and America, Ireland with the supplies of England and of the American colonies, and the American colonies with the money of each other, and of England and Ireland.

To this it may be objected, that the supplies granted by the colonies, even though joined with those of Ireland, ⚫ never could have risen to such a height as to have counterbalanced the importance of the English commons. I answer, in the first place, that there would have been no necessity that the aids granted by Ireland and America should have risen to an equality with those granted by the British parliament: it would have been sufficient, to produce the effects we mention, that they had only borne a certain proportion with those latter, so far as to have conferred on the crown a certain degree of independence, and at the same time to have raised in the English commons a correspondent sense of self-diffidence in the exercise of their undoubted privilege of granting, or rather refusing, subsidies to the crown. Here it must be remembered, that the right of granting, or refusing, supplies to the crown, is the only real constitutional privilege the British parliament possess: they have no other, as hath been observed in the beginning of this chapter: this circumstance ought to be combined with the absolute exclusiveness of the executive powers lodged in the crown, with its prerogative of dissenting from the bills framed by parliament, and even of dissolving it,d

J Being with doctor Franklin at his house in Craven-street, some months before he went back to America, I mentioned to him a few of the remarks contained in this chapter, and, in general, that the claim of the American colonies directly clashed with one of the vital principles of the English constitution. The observation, I remember, struck him very much; it led him afterwards to speak to me of the examination he had undergone in the house of commons; and he lent me the volume of the collection of Parliamentary Debates, in which an account of it is contained, Finding the constitutional tendency of the claim of the Americans to be a subject not very generally understood, I added a few paragraphs concerning it, in the English edition 1 some time after gave of this work; and being now about to give a third edition of the same, I have thought it might not be amiss to write something more compact on the subject, and have accordingly added the present new chapter, into which I have transferred the few additional paragraphs I mention, leaving in the place where they stood (pag. 25.) only the general observations on the right of

In the second place, I shall mention a remarkable fact in regard to the subject we are treating (which may serve to shew that politicians are not always consistent, or even sagacious, in their arguments,) which is, that the same persons who were the most strenuous advocates for granting to the American colonies their demands, were at the same time the most sanguine in their predictions of the future wealth and greatness of America, and at the same time also, used to make frequent complaints on the undue influence which the crown derives from the scanty supplies granted to it by the kingdom of Ireland.

Had the American colonies fully obtained their demands, both the essence of the present English government, and the condition of the English people, would certainly have been altered thereby: nor would such a change have been inconsiderable, but in proportion as the colonies should have remained in a state of national poverty.f

granting subsidies, which were formerly in the French work. Several of the ideas, and even expressious contained in this chapter, made their appearance in the Public Advertiser, about the time I was preparing the first edition: I sent them myself to that newspaper, under the signature of Advena. I mention this for the sake of those persons who may perchance remember having seen the sketch I allude to.

e This is chiefly meant to allude to the complaints made in regard to the pensions on the Irish establishment.

When I observe that no man who wished for the preservation of the form and spirit of the English constitution, ought to have desired that the claim of the American colonies might be granted them, neither do I mean to say, that the American colonies should have given up their claim. The wisdom of ministers, in regard to American affairs, ought to have been constantly employed in making the colonies useful to this country, and at the same time, in hiding their subjection from them (a caution which is, after all, more or less used in every government upon earth); it ought to have been exerted in preventing the opposite interests of Britain and of America from being brought to an issue, to any such clashing dilemma as would render disobedience on the one hand, and the resort to force on the other, almost surely unavoidable. The generality of people fancy that ministers use a great depth of thought, and much forecast in their operations; whereas the truth is, that ministers in all countries, never think but of providing for present, immediate contingencies; in doing which they constantly follow the open track before them. This method does very well for the common course of human affairs, and even is the safest; but whenever cases and circumstances of a new and unknown nature occur, sad blunders and uproar are the conse

CHAP. XXI.

CONCLUSION. A FEW WORDS ON THE NATURE OF THE DIVISIONS THAT TAKE PLACE IN ENGLAND.

I SHALL Conclude this work with a few observations on the total freedom from violence with which the political disputes and contentions in England are conducted and terminated, in order both to give a farther proof of the soundness of the principles on which the English government is founded, and to confute in general the opinion of foreign writers or politicians, who, misled by the apparent heat with which those disputes are sometimes carried on, and the rumours to which they give occasion, look upon England as a perpetual scene of civil broils and dissensions.

In fact, if we consider, in the first place, the constant tenor of the conduct of the parliament, we shall see, that

quences. The celebrated count Oxenstiern, chancellor of Sweden, one day when his son was expressing to him bis diffidence of his own abilities, and the dread with which he thought of ever engaging in the management of public affairs, made the following Latin answer to him; Nescis, mi fili, quam parvâ cum sapientia regitur mundus (You do not know, my son, with what little wisdom the world is governed.) Matters having come to an eruption, it was no longer to be expected they could be compromised, by the palliative offers sent at different times from this country to America. When the earl of Carlisle solicited to be at the head of the solemn commission that sailed for the purpose we mention, he did not certainly shew modesty equal to that of the son of chancellor Oxenstiern. His lordship's enemies have said, that the Americans could not think that the proposals of which he was made the bearer, were seriously meant: however, this cannot have been the principal cause of the miscarriage of his commission, The fact is, that, after the Americans had been once made to open their eyes on their political situation, and rendered sensible of the local advantages of their country, it was become in a manner impossible, to have struck with them any bargain at which either nation would have had afterwards cause to rejoice, or even to have struck any bargain at all. It would be needless to say here any thing more on the subject of the American contest.

The motto of one of the English nobility, should have been that of ministers, in their regulations for rendering the colonies useful to the mother country,-Faire sans dire.

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