This epistle was not the letter of Lord Hillsborough solely, though he held the official pen.  It was the letter of the noble lord upon the floor,[5] and of all the king’s then ministers, who (with, I think, the exception of two only) are his ministers at this hour.  The very first news that a British Parliament heard of what it was to do with the duties which it had given and granted to the king was by the publication of the votes of American assemblies.  It was in America that your resolutions were pre-declared.  It was from thence that we knew to a certainty how much exactly, and not a scruple more nor less, we were to repeal.  We were unworthy to be let into the secret of our own conduct.  The assemblies had confidential communications from his Majesty’s confidential servants.  We were nothing but instruments.  Do you, after this, wonder that you have no weight and no respect in the colonies?  After this are you surprised that Parliament is every day and everywhere losing (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it with reluctance) that reverential affection which so endearing a name of authority ought ever to carry with it? that you are obeyed solely from respect to the bayonet? and that this House, the ground and pillar of freedom, is itself held up only by the treacherous underpinning and clumsy buttresses of arbitrary power?

If this dignity, which is to stand in the place of just policy and common sense, had been consulted, there was a time for preserving it, and for reconciling it with any concession.  If in the session of 1768, that session of idle terror and empty menaces, you had, as you were often pressed to do, repealed these taxes, then your strong operations would have come justified and enforced, in case your concessions had been returned by outrages.  But, preposterously, you began with violence; and before terrors could have any effect, either good or bad, your ministers immediately begged pardon, and promised that repeal to the obstinate Americans which they had refused in an easy, good-natured, complying British Parliament.  The assemblies, which had been publicly and avowedly dissolved for their contumacy, are called together to receive your submission.  Your ministerial directors blustered like tragic tyrants here; and then went mumping with a sore leg in America, canting, and whining, and complaining of faction, which represented them as friends to a revenue from the colonies.  I hope nobody in this House will hereafter have the impudence to defend American taxes in the name of ministry.  The moment they do, with this letter of attorney in my hand, I will tell them, in the authorized terms, they are wretches “with factious and seditious views,” “enemies to the peace and prosperity of the mother country and the colonies,” and subverters “of the mutual affection and confidence on which the glory and safety of the British empire depend.”