unsels. Dowdeswill said: "On the repeal of the
Stamp Act, all America was quiet; but in the following year you would go
in pursuit of your peppercorn--you would collect from peppercorn to
peppercorn--you would establish taxes as tests of obedience. Unravel the
whole conduct of America; you will find out the fault is at home."
Pownall, former Governor of Massachusetts and earnest advocate of
American rights, said: "The dependence of the colonies is a part of the
British Constitution. I hope, for the sake of this country, for the sake
of America, for the sake of general liberty, that this address will pass
with a unanimous vote." Colonel Barre even applauded the good temper
with which the subject had been discussed, and refused to make any
opposition. William Burke, brother of Edmund Burke, said: "I speak as an
Englishman. We applaud ourselves for the struggles we have had for our
constitution; the colonists are our fellow-subjects; they will not lose
theirs without a struggle." Wedderburn, the Solicitor-General, who bore
the principal part in the debate, said: "The leading question is the
dependence or independence of America." The address was adopted without
a division.[327]

On the 14th of March, Lord North explained at large his American policy,
and opened the first part of his plan by asking leave to bring in a Bill
for the instant punishment of Boston. He stated, says the Annual
Register, "that the opposition to the authority of Parliament had always
originated in the colony of Massachusetts, and that colony had been
always instigated to such conduct by the irregular and seditious
proceedings of the town of Boston; that, therefore, for the purpose of
a thorough reformation, it became necessary to begin with that town,
which by a late unpardonable outrage had led the way to the destruction
of the freedom of commerce in all parts of America: that if a severe and
exemplary punishment were not inflicted on this heinous act, Great
Britain would be wanting in the protection she owed to her most
peaceable and meritorious subjects: that had such an insult been offered
to British property in a foreign port, the nation would have been called
upon to demand satisfaction for it.

"He would therefore propose that the town of Boston should be obliged to
pay for the tea which had been destroyed in their port: that the injury
was indeed offered by persons unknown and in disguise, but that the town
magistracy had taken no notice of