George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[239]

Thus calmly reasoned Jackson. Grenville urged

chap. XI.} 1765. Feb.

the house not to suffer themselves to be moved by resentment. One member, however, referred with asperity to the votes of New-York and Massachusetts, and the house generally seemed to hold that America was as virtually represented in parliament as the great majority of the inhabitants of Great Britain.

Isaac Barre, the companion and friend of Wolfe, sharer of the dangers and glories of Louisburg and Quebec, seemed to admit the power of parliament to tax America,¹ yet derided the idea of virtual representation. ‘Who of you, reasoning upon this subject, feels warmly from the heart,’ he cried, putting his hand to his breast, ‘who of you feels for the Americans as you would for yourselves, or as you would for the people of your own native country?’ and he taunted the house with its ignorance of American affairs, charging ‘those who should hold up their hands for the bill as acting very much in the dark;’ ‘but, perhaps,’ he added, ‘as well in the dark as any way.’

The charge of ignorance called upon his feet Charles Townshend, the reputed great master of American affairs. He confirmed the equity of the taxation, and insisted that the colonies had borne but a small proportion of the expenses of the last war, and had yet obtained by it immense advantages at a vast expense to the mother country.² ‘And now,’ said he, ‘will these American children, planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence to a degree ’