rom
those who wished to profit by the general confusion and ruin--of
dividing the good from the bad, and of giving aid and support to the
friends of peace and good government. Burke next attacked the minister.
He declared, that the measure was mean without being conciliatory, and
that it was a more oppressive mode of taxation than any that had yet
been adopted. It was proposed, he said, that the colonies were to be
held in durance by troops and fleets, until, singly and separately, they
should offer to contribute to a service they could not know, and in a
proportion they could not guess, since ministers had not even ventured
to hint at the extent of their expectations. This conduct he compared
to that of Nebuchadnezzar, who, when he had forgotten his dream, ordered
his wise men to relate what he had dreamt, and likewise to give him its
interpretation. He added, that every benefit, natural and political,
must be acquired in the order of things and in its proper season,
and that revenue from a free people must be the consequence, not the
condition, of peace. Dunning next followed, showering more sarcasms
and more odious comparisons on the head of Lord North than any of the
preceding speakers; but in the end the resolution was adopted by a
majority of two hundred and seventy-four against eighteen.

{GEORGE III. 1775-1776}

BURKE'S PLAN OF CONCILIATION.

The present occasion was deemed by the opposition a favourable one
for putting forth a plan of conciliation, the terms of which might,
by comparison, reflect censure on that of Lord North. This task was
committed to Burke, and on the 22nd of March he brought forward a plan
comprised in thirteen resolutions. These resolutions went to repeal many
acts of parliament, and to reform many regulations, but the foundation
on which the whole rested, was the mode of raising a revenue from
the colonists through grants and aids by resolutions in their general
assemblies. In the opening of an eloquent speech uttered upon this
occasion, Burke took a comprehensive view of the state of Britain as
connected with America, and then stated the nature of his proposition.
He remarked:--"The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium
of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and
endless negociations; not peace to arise out of universal discord,
fermented from principle in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend
on the periodical determination of perpl