them.  But however pure the intentions of their authors may have been, we all know that the event has been unfortunate.  The means of recovering our affairs are not obvious.  So many great questions of commerce, of finance, of constitution, and of policy are involved in this American deliberation, that I dare engage for nothing, but that I shall give it, without any predilection to former opinions, or any sinister bias whatsoever, the most honest and impartial consideration of which I am capable.  The public has a full right to it; and this great city, a main pillar in the commercial interest of Great Britain, must totter on its base by the slightest mistake with regard to our American measures.

Thus much, however, I think it not amiss to lay before you,—­that I am not, I hope, apt to take up or lay down my opinions lightly.  I have held, and ever shall maintain, to the best of my power, unimpaired and undiminished, the just, wise, and necessary constitutional superiority of Great Britain.  This is necessary for America as well as for us.  I never mean to depart from it.  Whatever may be lost by it, I avow it.  The forfeiture even of your favor, if by such a declaration I could forfeit it, though the first object of my ambition, never will make me disguise my sentiments on this subject.

But—­I have ever had a clear opinion, and have ever held a constant correspondent conduct, that this superiority is consistent with all the liberties a sober and spirited American ought to desire.  I never mean to put any colonist, or any human creature, in a situation not becoming a free man.  To reconcile British superiority with American liberty shall be my great object, as far as my little faculties extend.  I am far from thinking that both, even yet, may not be preserved.

When I first devoted myself to the public service, I considered how I should render myself fit for it; and this I did by endeavoring to discover what it was that gave this country the rank it holds in the world.  I found that our prosperity and dignity arose principally, if not solely, from two sources:  our Constitution, and commerce.  Both these I have spared no study to understand, and no endeavor to support.

The distinguishing part of our Constitution is its liberty.  To preserve that liberty inviolate seems the particular duty and proper trust of a member of the House of Commons.  But the liberty, the only liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with order:  that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them.  It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle.