Address to the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament Assembled

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London, March, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: At this important era, when the British Empire is in danger of being involved in a civil war; when Trade and Commerce are at a stand; when all the horrours of misery, poverty, and wretchedness, are hanging over our heads; when want and famine threaten to succeed our former plenty, must not every Englishman shudder at the approaching danger?

When from the height of power, opulence, and grandeur, we are on the point of being precipitated into the lowest abyss of slavery and insignificance; when from being the first and most respectable people in the world, we shall be sunk below the consequence of a Nation, what must not be the feelings of every man, whose generous soul is nobly excited by a love of his Country? What will not be his indignation? What bounds will there be to his resentment? Which of ye will then stand forth and confess you have been the author of these measures? The general calamity, I fear, is not far distant; and horrid as it must be to this Country in general, still it will bring with it this comfort, that wicked Ministers and corrupt Members of Parliament must then render an account of their actions. The publick justice of this Nation has been long eluded, and calls now aloud for redress.

Beware, ye Ministers; ye know not on how small a point ye stand; ye are now on the brink of an impenetrable gulf; still ye have time to retract; but if tempted by the placid flowings of its waters, ye think securely to swim along the summit, ye are deceived. When once immerged, the briny waves will use their wonted might, and foaming billows send you down to the regions below. The people of England are not yet fully apprised of their danger: but be assured when they once come to be thoroughly sensible of the calamities your wrong-headed measures have brought on them, it will not be easy to stand the torrent of their resentment. Your venal hirelings in the Senate will desert you, or, if sensible of their being equally involved in your guilt, from a sense of common danger they should stand by you, do not think their weak arguments will have any avail. The people without doors will resolve upon those measures which those within should have done; and ye can expect nothing but that just punishment which your folly, presumption, and wickedness, shall have merited.

It is foreign to my present purpose to enter into a discussion of those rights you, as the supreme power of this Nation, claim of sovereignty over the Americans; let it suffice to say, it is not probable that men, who are descended from the same common ancestors with ourselves; who have been bred up from their childhood in the principles of liberty, and have lived from their first settlements there in the actual possession of this invaluable blessing; it is not to be imagined, I say, that such men will quietly submit, and suffer themselves to be despoiled of that freedom their ancestors have transmitted to them pure and inviolate; nor is it to be conceived that men, who are not destitute of spirit, and who have arms in their hands, will quietly lay them down and bend their neck to the galling yoke of tyranny; or is it likely that those who have a superiour force, able to crush their opponents, will be terrified by empty threats menaces, when those threats are unsupported by authority, and unaided by justice? Your decrees will fall into the same ignominy and contempt as the denunciations of the Court of Rome. You might as well think to intimidate these people by the Pope' s Bulls, as by Acts of Parliament.

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For what, indeed, signify threats or menaces, without the two essentials necessary to support them — justice and power; — the one to persuade, the other to enforce? In the present contest with America, I think I may safely say you are destitute of both.

Is it reasonable or equitable that such of ye as represent Northumberland, Cumberland, or any other County in England, or more especially such of ye as are placed in the House of Commons by the servile and corrupt votes of dependant Boroughs in the different parts of the Kingdom, should govern a large and extensive Country at three thousand miles distant? What knowledge have ye of America? What know ye of its concerns? Have ye been instructed by the people of that land? Are ye acquainted with their manners and their customs; the state of their finances; the riches and numbers of their people, and what imposts they are able to bear, and what would entirely crush them? To all these questions I believe I may safely answer in the negative: But in reply you say, you think it is reasonable that they, as members of the British Empire, should bear a part of the burden and expense, not considering that by the advantages which accrue to Great Britain from the Commerce of these countries, and by the restrictions we have laid on their Trade with all other Nations, we already receive more and greater benefits from them than their proportion of taxes would amount to. Wisely then have ye done to stop this certain source of riches, from the vain and improbable hope of taking from them by force what they already paid with good will.

I need not remind you of the story of the old woman, whose hen brought her a golden egg every morning, and would have continued so to do had not the covetous old hag thought, by killing the hen, she should at once obtain the whole mass of riches, which now she could only receive by detail, and accordingly put in force this cruel resolution. The fable tells you what was the consequence.

Now, how nearly you stand in the same predicament with this old woman, I leave to yourselves to determine: But if I grant that the Americans should pay a proportional tax, besides maintaining their own internal Government, what right have ye to be the assessors? To sit in the British Parliament, a lauded qualification is necessary. But where must that qualification be situated? Why, within the Island of Great Britain. It is a maxim of our law, that no man shall be taxed but by his own consent, given either in person or by his Representative. I should be glad to know what assent ye can give for the Americans. Few or none of ye possess any property in America, or if ye do, it is not in virtue of such property ye sit in the British Senate; therefore, whatever burden you lay on their shoulders will be so much clear gains to yourselves. You will not feel the weight of the taxes, which, with so much ease confidence, you order to be levied on the Americans. Some of you indeed, may know the value of the sums raised, by the shares you received of the spoils. The Minister cannot be so ungrateful as to neglect adding to your salaries, when by your means he shall have brought about his end, and increased his own. But how weak these measures are, and how ineffectual, a very short time will demonstrate. Indeed, except yourselves, who will not be convinced? Every one is sensible of the dangerous situation to which we are now reduced.

Now, gentlemen, let me advise you, as you regard your own prosperity — let me conjure you as you value your safety, to consider well the situation of this unfortunate Country; look on the dangers that threaten it on every hand; consider not only the inexpediency of those measures, but the total inability of this Country to go through with them. Do you imagine the French and Spaniards will be tame and idle spectators, when they see us once deeply involved in a war with our Colonies? Throw off then your supine indolence; awake from your lethargick state; and if ye will not be excited by the desire of doing good, awake at least to the sense of your own danger. Think when the general calamity comes, who will be the objects of publick odium. Will not the advisers of these destructive measures be the first sacrifices to the publick clamour? When the Merchants, Traders, and Manufacturers are starving; when the whole mass of the people are in misery and distress, what security can you expect to find? Where will you hope to conceal yourselves? Will you be safe

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even within these sacred walls? Or rather, may you not fear being pursued, not only there, but even into your most secret lurking holes? Strafford and Laud were condemned, and justly executed for being the advisers of arbitrary measures. The King, had he been able, would have protected them; they only echoed back to him his own sentiments, strengthened by their flattery and obsequiousness. But weak is the power of rulers when opposed to the wants and distresses, the rage and resentment of the multitude.

When the artificers and handicraftsmen come by thousands to your House, demanding bread, it will be too late to argue; — the mischief will be done. You then will have only to conceal your obnoxious heads, and save yourselves if you can, from popular resentment and publick justice. There may be a time, and I believe that time will soon come, when the nod and smiles of the Minister will be shunned with as much care as they are now sought for with eagerness.

Once more I admonish you to awake before it is too late. Stop the further progress of the evil ye cannot now totally cure; and though ye will not be roused by a love of your Country, nor a sense of the impending ruin which threatens us, yet consider your own danger, as most assuredly such of ye as have been the advisers of these measures will be the first sacrifices. Repeal then these accursed Acts; acknowledge yourselves to have been in the wrong, and thus atone, as much as now lies in your power, for the mischiefs you have already occasioned.

MONITOR.

Address to the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament Assembled, on the Policy of the Ministry in Regard to America, Advising the Repeal of the Acts Which Have Produced the Present Disturbances. [1775-03] Monitor (pseudo.). [S4-V2-p0005] [Document Details][Complete Volume]