George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

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Grenville who must have shed tears of spite, if he

Chap. XXIX.} 1767. May.

could not have ‘croaked out’ a presage of evil,¹ heard with malignant joy one of the repealers of his Stamp Act propose a revenue from Port Duties. ‘You are deceived,’ said he; ‘I tell you, you are deceived The Americans will laugh at you for your distinctions.’ He spoke against legalizing a direct trade between Portugal and America. As to taxes, he demanded more; all that were promised were trifles. ‘I,’ said he,² ‘will tell the Honorable gentleman of a revenue that will produce something valuable in America; issue paper bearing interest upon loan there, and apply the interest as you think proper.’

Townshend, perceiving that the House seemed to like the suggestion, stood up again, and said that that was a proposition of his own, which he had intended to have made with the rest, but it had slipped his memory; the Bill for it was already prepared.

The debate would not have continued long, if there had not been a division of opinion as to the mode of coercing New-York. Edmund Burke, approving a local tax on importations into that province, opposed the general system. ‘You will never see a single shilling from America,’ said he propheticlly;³ ‘it is not by votes and angry resolutions of this House, but by a slow and steady conduct, that the Americans are to be reconciled to us.’ Dowdeswell described the new plan as worse than to have softened and enforced the Stamp Tax. ‘Do like the best of physicians,’ said Beckford, who alone seemed to understand the subject of American discontents,