The last of these propositions seems not to have been well considered, because an adequate representation in parliament, is totally impracticable; but the others have exhausted the subject. If any one should ask what authority or evidence I have of this anecdote, I refer to the second volume of the Political Disquisitions, page 276, 7, 8, 9. A book which ought to be in the hands of every American who has learned to read.
Whether the ministry at home or the junto here, were discouraged by these masterly remarks, or by any other cause, the project of taxing the Colonies was laid aside. Mr. Shirley was removed from this government, and Mr. Pownal was placed in his stead.
Mr. Pownal seems to have been a friend to liberty and to our Constitution, and to have had an aversion to all plots against either, and consequently to have given his confidence to other persons than Hutchinson and Oliver, who, stung with envy against Mr. Pratt and others, who had the lead in affairs, set themselves, by propagating slanders against the Governor, among the people, and especially among the clergy, to raise discontents, and make him uneasy in his seat. Pownal averse to wrangling, and fond of the delights of England, solicited to be recalled, and after some time Mr. Bernard was removed from New Jersey to the chair of this Province.
Bernard was the man for the purpose of the junto; educated in the highest principles of monarchy, naturally daring and courageous, skilled enough in law and policy to do mischief, and avaricious to a most infamous degree; needy at the same time, and having a numerous family to provide for,—he was an instrument, suitable in every respect, excepting one, for this junto, to employ. The exception I mean, was blunt frankness, very opposite to that cautious cunning, that deep dissimulation, to which they had by long practice disciplined themselves. However, they did not despair of teaching him this necessary artful quality by degrees, and the event shewed they were not wholly unsuccessful, in their endeavors to do it.
While the war lasted, these simple Provinces were of too much importance in the conduct of it, to be disgusted, by any open attempt against their liberties. The junto therefore, contented themselves with preparing their ground by extending their connection and correspondencies in England, and by conciliating the friendship of the crown officers occasionally here, and insinuating their designs as necessary to be undertaken in some future favorable opportunity, for the good of the empire, as well as of the Colonies.
The designs of Providence are inscrutable. It affords to bad men conjunctures favourable for their designs, as well as to good. The conclusion of the peace, was the most critical opportunity for our junto, that could have presented. A peace founded on the destruction of that system of policy, the most glorious for the nation, that ever was formed, and which was never equalled in the conduct of the English government, except in the interregnum, and perhaps in the reign of Elizabeth; which system however, by its being abruptly broken off and its chief conductor discarded before it was completed, proved unfortunate to the nation by leaving it sinking in a bottomless gulf of debt, oppressed and borne down with taxes.
At this lucky time, when the British financier, was driven out of his wits for ways and means, to supply the demands upon him, Bernard is employed by the junto, to suggest to him the project of taxing the Colonies by act of Parliament.
I do not advance this without evidence. I appeal to a publication made by Sir Francis Bernard himself, the last year of his own select letters on the trade and government of America, and the principles of law and polity applied to the American Colonies. I shall make much use of this pamphlet before I have done.
In the year 1764, Mr. Bernard transmitted home to different noblemen, and gentlemen, four copies of his principles of law and polity, with a preface, which proves incontestibly, that the project of new regulating the American Colonies were not first suggested to him by the ministry, but by him to them. The words of this preface are these:—"The present expectation, that a new regulation of the American governments will soon take place, probably arises more from the opinion the public has of the abilities of the present ministry, than from any thing that has transpired from the cabinet; it cannot be supposed that their penetration can overlook the necessity of such a regulation, nor their public spirit fail to carry it into execution. But it may be a question, whether the present is a proper time for this work; more urgent business may stand before it, some preparatory steps may be required to precede it; but these will only serve to postpone. As we may expect that this reformation, like all others, will be opposed by powerful prejudices, it may not be amiss to reason with them at leisure, and endeavor to take off their force before they become opposed to government."