een built up. He desired
that the colonies should be represented in parliament, a proposal which
found some advocates both here and in America, but was condemned by
Burke and did not enter into practical politics. Meanwhile a pamphleteer
of originality and genius, Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, maintained that
separation was inevitable and advisable, that the Americans were a
turbulent and ill-conditioned people, a source of expense to which they
would not contribute, and that England would be better off without them.
She would not, he contended, lose commercially; for, like Adam Smith, he
pointed out that trade goes to the best market, and that so long as
England remained superior to other countries in capital and industry,
she would keep the American trade, and, as war was destructive of trade,
he would have had her separate herself peacefully from her rebellious
colonies. His proposal was denounced by Burke and found no acceptance
with either party in England.

Numerically weak as the opposition in parliament was, it made a vigorous
fight over American affairs. Parliament opened on November 30, and the
king's speech took note of the resistance to the law which prevailed in
Massachusetts, and the "unwarrantable combinations for the obstruction"
of trade. In both houses an amendment to the address was proposed. The
divisions illustrate the strength of the two parties; in the lords it
was defeated by 63 to 13, and in the commons by 264 to 73. The ministers
asserted that the force already in America was sufficient to bring the
colonies to obedience; the naval establishment was reduced to a peace
footing, and no extra soldiers were voted. Gage, however, who had only
some 3,000 troops, asked for a large reinforcement, and wrote that, if
matters came to an extremity, 20,000 men would be needed for the
conquest of New England, a number which, Dartmouth said, "the nation
would not be able to furnish in a twelvemonth".[97] The ministers
resolved to send a small reinforcement from Ireland, they were
encouraged to believe that the Americans would yield by tidings that the
New York assembly had rejected the decisions of congress and by more
hopeful news from Gage. After the recess the campaign opened in earnest.
On January 20, 1775, Chatham moved for the recall of the troops from
Boston, and declared that, if the ministers persisted in their policy,
they would mislead the king and the kingdom would be undone. He was
defeated by a la