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

[400] nounced the distinction between internal and external

chap. XXI.} 1766. Jan.

taxation, as a novelty unfounded in truth, reason, or justice, unknown to their ancestors, whether as legislators or judges—a whim that might serve to point a declamation, but abhorrent to the British constitution. ‘Expressions,’ said he, ‘have fallen from that member now, and on a late similar occasion, which make my blood run cold, even at my heart. I say, he sounds the trumpet to rebellion. Such language in other days, and even since the morning of freedom, would have transported that member out of this House into another, with more leisure for better reflections.’ Pitt, without saying one word, fixed his eye steadily on him, with an air of most marked contempt, from which Norton, abashed or chagrined, knew no escape, but by an appeal for protection to the speaker.

Edmund Burke speaking for the first time in the House of Commons, advocated the reception of the petition, as in itself an acknowledgment of the jurisdiction of the house; while Charles Townshend in a short speech treated the line drawn between external and internal taxation, as ‘a fiction or the ecstasy of madness.’

An hour before midnight Lord John Cavendish avoided a defeat on a division, by moving the orders of the day, while Conway assured the American agents of his good will, and the Speaker caused the substance of the whole paper to be entered on the journals.

The reading of papers and examination of witnesses continued during the month, in the utmost secrecy. The evidence especially of the riots in Rhode Island and New-York, produced a very unfavorable